Review: Mega Colossus – Watch Out!
We’re going adventuring.
2024’s Showdown was my introduction to Mega Colossus and quickly endeared me to what they’ve dubbed “adventure metal.” Constructed from the grandeur of power metal, the frankness of thrash metal, and the melodicism of NWoBHM, the music tells fantastic tales—often inspired by literature and movies—with exuberance and joviality, all while seldom neglecting headbangability. As much fun as I’ve had with Showdown, a review never came to pass, so it’s high time I make up for that with a look at follow-up Watch Out!.
The Shining-themed opener “The Bad Thing” sets the stage with a slow, appropriately sinister-sounding intro that evokes evil forces conglomerating before launching their attack. Like Jack Torrance going to town on a door, the song then erupts with massive thrashing energy and the high-pitched, high-energy performance from the singer, who is chiefly responsible for the aforementioned power metal vibe. A voice that’s only a couple of degrees removed from Geddy Lee delivering lines with the pomp and gravitas of Eric Adams lends itself well to the triumphant air of Mega Colossus. At the same time, the delivery of certain lines here should clue you in that they don’t necessarily take themselves too seriously and are more of a fun-forward band.
For some, this might understandably ring some alarm bells. Are we on the slippery slope to comedy metal? Hardly. Not only are other overtly tongue-in-cheek moments pretty few and far between, but there is never a sense that the band are hiding behind humor or ironically detaching themselves from the subject matter. These are simply enthusiastic nerds with a lot of genuine love for the media that inspires them, and that comes across. When “Tag in Your Friend” takes a moment from its proceedings to declare that “this is awesome,” I’m inclined to agree. Such sincerity is often considered “cringe” nowadays, a concept we’re only slowly moving away from, but that’s a bigger discussion. For now, I’ll just say that your mileage may of course vary, but I find this earnestness refreshing and sympathetic.
As the album moves along, songs become longer and more complex, cracking first the 5- and then the 7-minute mark. Ambitiously long songs require material to be filled with, and luckily, the band mostly prove themselves able to go the distance. Longer tracks like “The Halls of Mystikos” and “Bloodless” provide enough twists and turns to fulfill their promises of epicness. The song structures remind me a bit of Visigoth‘s The Revenant King, where most numbers took such grand detours that they almost felt like a two-for-one deal. Here, the shifts aren’t quite so profound that it feels like a wholly different song midway through, but they do enough to feel like grand quests. Sadly, while Showdown consisted of similarly long yarns, I feel like it had a much higher density of memorable hooks. “Fortune and Glory” and “Grab the Sun,” for example, got stuck in my head immediately and stayed there for a good while, whereas I can’t recall moments like that quite as readily this time around.
Another slight damper is the double whammy of slower songs that close out the record. Neither is bad per se; “Here Lies You,” carried largely by a beautiful clean guitar, skews a little Rush-wards, providing something unprecedented and boasting some great lyrics. “Bloodless” develops its own kind of energy with a Manowarian marching riff in the verses and a crazy amount of guitar solos. It also scores some points with me for being based on the Kingkiller Chronicle. However, despite its opportunities to explode into something akin to the shredfest that opened the record, it largely stays a course similar to that of its predecessor, making me wish the two tracks had at least been placed further apart.
These are fairly minor gripes though. Overall, Watch Out! is a fantastically fun journey. The first 5 tracks, in particular, are absolutely killer; “Halls of Mystikos,” with its chorus and its whoa-oah-oahs, strongly reminds me of an intro theme to an ’80s cartoon show, while the unabashedly upbeat “Good Hunting” always puts a smile on my face. Mega Colossus know how to have fun and how to rope you in for the ride. Buckle up!
3.5 out ov 5 Flaming Toilets
Watch Out! comes releases Friday, March 6 via Cruz del Sur Music. Digital and physical copies are available here.
