Hey Colossus
The Guillotine
Release Date: Jun 2, 2017
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock
Record label: Rocket Recordings
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Album Review: The Guillotine by Hey Colossus
Very Good, Based on 4 Critics
Based on rating 4/5
London sextet Hey Colossus' latest is a barbed punch at the UK's current political climate. The band have been on a roll since 2015 when they released two excellent albums - Radio Static High and In Black and Gold - proving themselves to be remarkably self-assured, prolific and consistent right off the bat. Now, they're back with their scathing follow-up The Guillotine which takes a rather large swipe at the current state of the nation.
Based on rating 4/5
In 2004 Hey Colossus released Hey Colossus Hates You, and have since garnered a cultish acclaim for their distinctive brand of groove-laden audio thuggery. That said, since 2015 the drubbings have been somewhat more nuanced. Releasing two albums that year, the London and Somerset outfit began to weigh more heavily on their psychedelic and krautrock influences; resulting in a less-abrasive sound, the possibilities of which are further explored here.
Based on rating 7/10
This is music that is painstakingly, exhaustingly constructed, pungent with the perspiration and lactic acid of physical exertion, that crumbles and plummets with similarly epic levels of drama and earthly weight. Remarkably, since their departure from the brutal noise rock of their early records towards a comparatively accessible brand of swaggering psych on 2015's In Black and Gold, Hey Colossus have somehow managed to pull off the paradoxical feat of actually becoming a heavier band while allowing a hookier, poppier sheen to varnish their cascades of wrought-iron grooves and sandblaster riffs. On The Guillotine, the listener is strongarmed into bearing witness to a further refinement of this disorientating brew of metallic intensity and inexplicably catchy melody.
Based on rating 6/10
Hey Colossus fit in with many of their hard rock contemporaries, but have been suspiciously absent from broader conversation for the duration of their nine album career. They don't have a Wikipedia article. Their presence in their home UK has always greatly outsized it elsewhere. Their records In Black and Gold and Radio Static High, secretly two of the smartest and best records of 2015, made few end of year lists.
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