With one half of the death metal fraternity languishing in digital sterility and the other half desperately trying to invoke Cthulhu, it’s good to be reminded that it’s not essential to choose between the two.
Instead, Portuguese demolition experts Colosso’s debut album harks back to freewheeling experimentalists like Gorguts and Yattering. A rabid enthusiasm for messing with any and all formulae is wholly central to these songs’ allure, and while there are plenty of blastbeats, clanging open-string chords and moments of simplistic brutality, the sonic background remains proudly awash with more perverse and destabilising elements.
In many respects, a song like Of Hollow Judgements shares DNA with Morbid Angel, Behemoth and even Gojira, but the woozy drone that provides its start-to-end red line belongs firmly in territory most recently occupied by Triptykon. Moments like the transition from As Resonance’s eerie, post-punk coda to Soaring Waters’ blend of slow-burning sludge and fizzing electronics mark Colosso out as genuine eccentrics, but a shrewd framework of recognisable tropes ensures that Obnoxious has a shot at crossover success too.
