El Colosso – Forgotten Ancestors

Another heavily underrated local act, this Melbourne band has been around for quite some time, and this is their second full-length album.

Forgotten Ancestors finds them progressing strongly from their debut, 2017’s Pathways (which itself was excellent), winding out and really exploring their sound, and producing a highly cohesive work of bluesy-arse art that will appeal strongly to anyone who likes anything from Black Sabbath to Kyuss to Helm to Celtic Frost. And just about everything in between.

This album is seven tracks, although 40-odd minutes’ worth, of pure ballsy stomp, with riffs aplenty, slamming drums, a chunky, chugging, uber-tight rhythm section, wah-drenched lead breaks and powerful, soulful vocals soaring over the top. There is not a single weak track among the seven on offer, although they certainly saved the best til last: penultimate track Down to the Stars is the record’s best cut. Its sense of down-tempo but dynamic raunch is just enthralling. Then Backchat closes proceedings in epic, grandiose and sometimes eerie and atmospheric style.

And arguably the best thing about it all is that there is a real sense of boogie to their sound. You can move and groove to it while you slam your fist to the sky and spill beer all over yourself while you stagger around the pit in a happy drunken frenzy.

To tip it all off, the production is real, raw, powerful and highly listenable all at once. You can hear every instrument with great clarity as well as all the sweat, blood and tears that have obviously gone into this album’s creation. Much kudos to everyone involved in this record’s engineering, recording, mixing and mastering.

If you dig your rock ‘n’ roll with balls of steel and an old-school aesthetic, then Forgotten Ancestors is your bag.

Band: El Colosso
Album: Forgotten Ancestors
Year: 2020
Genre: Heavy stoner/blues rock
Label: Independent
Origin: Australia

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