The Colossus of Rhodes was a massive statue of the god Helios, about the size of the Statue of Liberty, and it was erected somewhere around 290 BC to commemorate a great victory. The Colossus of Raleigh is a massive force of metal guitar, high-pitched metal god shrieking, and it will rock your face off (and have you laughing your ass off) Wednesday (May 27) at the Pour House. Chapel Hill bands Caltrop and Black Skies are along to crush some bones in the process. Prior to the show, three members of Colossus shared their thoughts on who is metal’s true golden voice, and how they manage to be rocking and ironic at the same time.
Colossus are Benjamin Smith (drums), Bill Fisher (guitar), Rylan Wilshire (Bass), Sean Buchanan (vocals), Nicky Nixon (guitar), and Andy Lewis (guitar).
Read Scott’s article on this show and other current local music.
1. Halford, Dickinson or Dio? Who’s the best, and why?
(Bill Fischer) man, that is so hard. but i gotta go with Dickinson. i love everything about that guy. he’s broken glass with his voice, he’s a badass fencer, he’s flown rescue missions for British diplomats, he captains iron maiden’s airplane, produced a movie about Alistair Crowley, is a class A nerd, and to this day (what is he, fifty years old?), he can jump over, onto, and off of more things than most 15 year olds while singing flawlessly. maybe that’s not such a hard one. they all sing amazingly though.
(Andy Lewis) Halford best voice, Dickinson best live stage show, and Dio for the best lyrics.
(Sean Buchanan) Bill makes a good point, but I gotta go with Halford. He’s got the golden pipes!
2. How does Colossus walk that fine line between respecting metal but not taking it too seriously, without turning into The Darkness?
(BF) Yeah, we do respect metal, thank you. i hate it when people think that just because a band uses metal imagery without acting angry, tough, or super-brutal that they are just kidding around. I mean, we are always kidding around, but you know, we joke about everything, that doesn’t make us a “joke band”. but I actually never could tell whether the Darkness was being overly tongue-in-cheek or overly serious, so I actually kind of liked that about them. But we just do what we do and have as much fun as possible.
(SB) I think there’s always been a place for humor in metal. We have a good time onstage cause we like what we’re doing, I can’t see that as a bad thing. Plus we saw Motorhead once and those guys fuck around onstage more than anybody.
(AL) I think we all grew up listening to metal as well as other genres of rock, so for me its easy to pull out other influences without getting caught up in what’s “cool” or “metal”.
3. A few years back, a metal drummer I know was asked how long his hair was before he could even get an audition with a band. Colossus only has one longhair (the drummer) and you guys do kind of dress like hipsters on stage. Is there still an image prejudice in metal, or have people moved beyond that?
(BF) Oh, there’s an image prejudice. kind of goes back to the previous question. Man, my hair only grows into an Afro. and i need glasses to see, so I look like a nerd. Half of us are balding; that doesn’t do well for growing hair. And we don’t have stage clothes (because that’s kind of cheesy) so we wear, you know… pants and shirts on stage. not super metal. but I definitely feel that there are some guys who either won’t watch our band because they assume we’re not “true” metal (because we don’t look the part), or won’t really talk to us much until maybe after we’ve played.
(AL) Hipsters? Hum I don’t know bout that. I think we are a far cry from that. I do think we don’t look like the typical “metal” but I think our attitude really reflects what being metal is.
(SB) I once read a topic in a Manowar forum discussing if it was possible to be metal without long hair and I think the conclusion everybody came up with was that you either have to be a longhair or be bald, so I guess most of us will be really metal soon!
4. If the members of Colossus were all Greek gods/demi-gods/famous mortals who would they be and why?
(AL) I pick Apollo. He’s the god of music plus he gets to fly on a badass chariot.
(BF) I think Andy would be Apollo ‘cause he’s so pretty and sunshiny. I think Ben would be a small minotaur because of his little hoofed feet. hmmm…. I’ll keep thinking about this one. I would be fucking Hercules. Yes, I choose Hercules for my god-self. Is there a god that laughs really distinctively, because that would cover Sean and Ry both. Nick Perros is the Greek god of Greekness, because he is Greek as hell.
(SB) Damn, Bill already called Hercules. In that case I’ll go with Theseus. He was pretty badass, and if Ben’s the minotaur that means I get to kill him so that’s a plus.
5. Who is the most overrated band in metal?
(AL) Most overrated Killswitch Engage or Atreyu
(BF) well, it would be like kicking an injured baby in the face to take a pot shot at Metallica… but dammit, their albums are STILL highly anticipated to this very day. why???
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Find out what else is happening in the Triangle this week on Karen’s blog, Mann’s World.
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