COLOSSUS hailing from Illinois, US are a technical brutal Death Metal band and they deliver their debut full-length album. While this is the band's first release, Steven Chavez (CEREVISCERA), Von Young (LIVIDITY), and Dan Klein (CRYPTIC FROG, BERATOR) are vastly experienced in the brutal Death Metal scene. "Degenesis" was released via US label Comatose music which has its own credentials in brutal Death Metal and Grindcore. The album has a length of almost 26 minutes.

COLOSSUS provide a firework of the best elements of technical brutal Death Metal with their album: it is fast, it is aggressive, and it has a high technical standard throughout. It all starts with the dark intro "Becoming All Forms" before it erupts in insanity and chaos: fast and heavy guitar riffs, relentlessly hammering blast-beats and double-bass drums, brutal growling vocals that are at the low end of the gutturals, background screams that intensify the main vocals, and a crunching bass. "Iniquitous Macrocosm" continues with the madness and with even more technical lead guitar sequences that are at highest standard. Dan Klein has to work very hard on drums during "Iniquitous Macrocosm" and he does a fabulous job. Both songs are kept at high pace for most of the time with occasional short mid-tempo breaks.

"Abysmal Tectonic Tyrants" is another song starting with an atmospheric intro, before it starts exploding via a short transitional mid-tempo sequence. The song has a few distinct mid-tempo breaks with powerful guitar riffs and crunching bass sequences. COLOSSUS love their intros, there is one at the beginning of each song, so on "Malignant Eye Of Inexorable Ruin". The guitar riffs are very dark but catchy, and lead guitar sequences and bass are highly technical. The label put this song on YouTube with the link given below. In general, there are little changes in tempo throughout the album. Each song has a couple of mid-tempo breaks, often there are smooth transitions, so in "Violent Ichor Of Primordial Ascension" which, after the obligatory 30 seconds intro, starts at mid-tempo with powerful guitar riffs and slowly transitions into higher paced sequences. This song is a bit more straightforward and technicality is limited to the most necessary.

The last two songs are the longest on the album. While "Spiteful Obliteration Of An Obsolete Reality" is basically not different compared to the other songs of the album perhaps with the exception of an extended mid-tempo break that has powerful and gloomy guitar riffs. The title song "Degenesis" is a more measured approach in mid-tempo with dark riffing, a lead guitar solo halfway through the song, and most notably the growling vocals are in principle absent and replaced by passages of spoken words.

"Degenesis" is more than a decent debut album and a good indication what we can expect from COLOSSUS in the future: traditional technical brutal Death Metal without compromise. All band members have great individual qualities, especially on bass, drums, and guitars. However, there are still a few things to improve and the band will surely work on this. There is little variation in the sound of COLOSSUS and songs are indistinguishable from each other with the exception of the title song. The vocals are also a bit one-dimensional at times. The production of the album could be improved, I would have loved to have a better sound of the guitars. COLOSSUS set their mark with "Degenesis" and fans of technical brutal Death Metal will surely enjoy the album and can be excited about future albums.