Even the closing instrumental “December 13th” scores points, offering some acoustics backing a somber lead guitar, which elicits a nice definitive aural ending to this vicious, bloody tale. Opener “Dark Web” similarly entertains, but it takes a more grandiose approach, mixing stomping orchestral hits with an infectious chorus shout. It’s just so much more energetic and unhinged than anything this band put out before, and I love to see it. Blistering, kit-bludgeoning blackened death metal bulldozes into my skull and mashes my defenseless brain into a worthless pulp, leaving only the spinal cord and pleasure center intact so that I might better revel in the infernal joy these songs bring. Title track “Colosseum” and “Ensanguined” serve as the brightest highlights of the record, and in that role they exemplify everything that makes Colosseum such a substantial step up from W.E.B.’s past works.

Colosseum isn’t a one-trick pony either, offering a dynamic playthrough complete with demolishing bouts of speed and rejuvenating breaths of ritualistic recuperation. Pummeling drums reinforce the army of bombast that surges forth, and throat-shredding screams emanate from what might be symphonic black/death metal’s most charismatic hype-man. Gleeful evil abounds, reveling in metallic debauchery and mischief, riffs wreaking havoc as would a freshly unleashed horde of demonic imps upon the Earth. Colosseum gushes drama, extremity and bloodthirst in equal parts, blasting and thrashing and spree-killing its way through all of thirty-eight minutes. I don’t know what happened between 2017’s Tartarus and today, but whatever it was lit a blasphemous sacrificial fire beneath the asses of this quartet. Not only is this record particularly extreme for the symphonic metal genre, but it’s fucking fun, too. Its fervent desire to destroy is unmatched in intensity and infectiousness. It was fine symphonic black metal, but nothing I would spend my money on.Ĭolosseum, on the other hand, is unstoppable. Then, upon sampling their back catalog after discovering these Greeks have been at it for nearly twenty years, I found myself disappointed that their music wasn’t particularly good. is perhaps one of the most extreme bands I’ve heard in the last two years that rightfully claim the symphonic metal tag.

Upon sampling their new fifth installment, Colosseum, however, I came to realize I was misinformed. The promo titling called them “Symphonic Metal,” which in my mind doesn’t extend to the extreme side of things. Du Bois was not what I was led to believe them to be.

Band called colosseum