Hey Colossus

I was never much of a fan of Stanton, so when I first heard that two members of said band, namely Bob and Joe, were staring a new band called Hey Colossus with a few chaps from I'm Being Good, Yeast and econoline, I was hardly tripping over myself with excitement. Then I read the email I got from that econoline exile, Ian Scanlon, back again: “sound-wise think Black Sabbath, Can and shouting... we will have had five full rehearsals, so it will be utterly amazing obviously”. Um, I'm there.

So here I am, in the belly of Highbury, self-consciously clutching a bottle of Tiger close to my chest and trying not to look like the complete loner that I am. Catching the last few 'songs' from Trencher improves my mood greatly. I've caught this 'Casio-grind' (their words, not mine) trio three times in the last few months, and they impress more and more each time. Preferring to set up on the floor rather than the stage, they leave the crowd no choice but to cluster around their faces as they savagely lay waste to any semblance of a tune. They are, in short, immense.

They’re not, however, quite as immense as Hey Colossus, who flow seamlessly from set-up into set without so much of a “hello”. From the outset the band's agenda is clear – make as much noise as possible, and then piss off – and it's something they accomplish remarkably well, especially considering that this is the band's first ever gig. The Black Sabbath comparison isn't completely unfounded – basically the music is bass heavy with lots of repetition – but there's somewhat more depth to the compositions than I had originally foreseen. Booming passages, replete with dual screams from Bob and Ian, often give way to texturally rich segments of intricate guitar (and I immediately regret the usage of this term) noodling. If the duo’s vocals were stronger you’d almost be in Isis territory, yet somewhere beneath all the bombast there's a little tunefulness just begging to be let out, or at least there should be considering the musicians on show. Well, maybe – to be honest, whatever's lying beneath the band's epic sludge is going to find tunnelling out rather hard-going, such is the group’s apparent disregard for regular song structures. Like I said, this is a band intent on creating as big a noise as possible in the shortest space of time; the worrying thing being that all in attendance lap it up, displaying an utter lack of responsibility for their hearing. Only when they stop do I realise that I’ve been grinning like a fool to nobody but myself for twenty-odd minutes. Unsigned they may be, but the chance of a band as big, sound-wise, as Hey Colossus going unheard for long is as non-existent as the band’s love of three minute pop songs.