Currently on a prolific streak, Somerset-rooted, London-based free-form garage rockers Hey Colossus return with their second album this year, a gnarly widescreen audioscape every bit as compelling as its softer-sounding predecessor In Black And Gold.
And while hard-driving psych-drone Kraut-psych grind remains key to their brawny sound, the six-piece collective’s musical gene pool has been steadily enriched with punky and dubby elements, serrated riffs and choppy martial rhythms.
Radio Static High contains the usual smattering of lysergically fuzzy guitar churners, from the Floydian title track to the chiming psych-blues of The Mourning Gong. But the standout cuts rise above the heavy fog of stoner-rock nostalgia and slap listeners around the ears: urgent calls to arms like Hop The Railings, with its jittery groove and insolently yelping lyrical refrain, or Honey, a shuddering drone-metal war dance with echoes of Killing Joke.
March Of The Headaches, a propulsive, clanging riff spiked with a dystopian glam-punk vocal, is one of the strangest and strongest tunes these mercurial West Country noiseniks have yet recorded. Nine albums and 12 years into their journey, Hey Colossus have never sounded better.
Classic Rock 215: New Albums H-Z
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