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Thursday 9 January 2014

Matterz Review - Collibus - The False Awakening

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Collibus

The False Awakening

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Name a Rock icons well who’s played on some of the world’s biggest stages, built his guitar and holds the mightiest fuzzy hair this side of 1985. Only one name should be on your lips and that’s Brian May of Queen. When he introduces you and tweeted about your band, people should step up and take a listen.
The band has already won the some pretty damn cool awards including Rock The House, whose founder is strangely an MP named Mike Weatherly whose actually a rocker. This is their debut album and been given some pretty damn good reviews, so it’s now time to take a listen to the new kids on the block.
After the first few songs you can tell this band has the chops and certainly one hell of a vocalist with a style that is possibly unique. Collibus open their debut album with an eerie piano piece that borrows more from film soundtracks than a heavy metal band but in more recent times these two fields have merged.
The guitar playing is heavy throughout the album, it’s both heavy with an almost Meshuggah style attack, what is this albums real difference maker are the vocals. This is not your typical female style of vocals, it’s not the operatic like Nightwish nor is it that guttural and visceral like Arch Enemy’s powerhouse vocalist Angela Gossow.  Gemma provides a deep and powerful delivery but one that still contains the right amount of a feminine touch that is good for this style of metal.
The major drawback that may happen with this album is simply translating it to the live arena, entertaining the lovely crowd of metal heads that we are is pretty nuts. We can mosh around, bang our heads or simply watch and listen and take in the show. However, most songs on The False Awakening are pretty long some reaching Dream Theater lengths of 9 minutes plus. Although for a record it’s pretty common for bands to experiment with song lengths, I would just be concerned as to its live potential.
So what is this, it’s an eclectic mix of hard rock and metal elements, both heavy and melodic. With the demise of Scared Mother Tongue last year in 2013, there needs to be a band to take that spirit and run with it and this maybe that band.
Stand out tracks:  Dead Inside, The False Awakening and Leave it all behind.
7/10- One to keep an eye on.
Review by Nathan Kerridge-Porter

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