Colosus: Blestem (2013)

This one kind of found me.  This was a throw-in by the record label when I bought the Ataraxie album.  It is fairly unlikely that I would have sought this one out myself, though I do recall looking at it when I ordered the Ataraxie album.  I think I decided it did not sound like something I would have been that interested in.  And for the most part, I was correct. 

When a band names itself "Colosus" (never mind the spelling mistake), one would assume that the band's sound would be slow and lumbering and monolithically heavy.  Well, the slow and lumbering part is absolutely correct, but this is not particularly heavy.  This Colosus is much more devoted to creating a dark and foreboding atmosphere.  The riffs, when present, more resemble the Norwegian black metal groups like Burzum and Darkthrone, other bands whose primary concern is atmospherics over heaviness.  Think Darkthrone riffs in a Burzum ambient track and that is halfway there.

I will give the band credit for managing to provoke an extreme sense of dread and unease throughout the album.  Unfortunately the songs, and album as a whole, are just so damn long that it is sometimes difficult to maintain interest.  Colosus has a tendency toward creating large gaps of ambient noise and mindless noodling that is a little too much at times.  The truly great moments tend to get lost in the shuffle.

I do not really dislike this album, but I likely would not have picked it out myself.  Atmospheric black metal can be done really well.  Just look at my previous reviews of groups like Saor and Vvilderness.  Unfortunately Colosus misses the mark more than the band hits it.