Searching for an outlet to create dark, mournful and heavy hitting music, Juhani Palomäki created Colosseum in 2006, a mix of Funeral Doom and Ambient soundscapes melted together with orchestral backings. Colosseum is a stray from Palomäki's work in Yearning, but the mastermind's creativity is aurally beat into the ears as delicately as possible with Chapter 1: Delirium, the projects debut release.
Most Funeral Doom is rather straight forward. Monstrous guitar riffs (Olli Haaranen, guitar; Janne Rämö, bass) played at excruciatingly slow paces backed by pounding percussion (Sameli Köykkä) and hellish vocals (Palomäki). As a Doom metal fan, I enjoy plenty of Funeral Doom bands but, in many cases, there always seems to be an element missing from the composition. I find that element in Colosseum.
Palomäki skillfully blends his Ambient and orchestral influences with the genre to create something which is complete and whole. Bleak melodies of keyboards and ambient sounds flow on top of the skull-crushing riffs of the guitars, the beating of the drums, and the tortured, morose vocals. It adds a touch of ethereal beauty to the overall composition of the tracks, and it fills that space that always seemed to be empty with other Funeral Doom bands.
At various points in the album, the riffs and pounding will cease, leaving the melodies to create brief, haunting moments of clarity and light before thrusting you back into a damp, stone chamber of hopeless torture.
Palomäki's lyrics are just as haunting and mournful as the sounds which back them, ranging in topics from suicide to Sumerian myths. While the vocals are never clean, Palomäki delivers them in good fashion to match the music. However, the guitars and drums sometimes overpower the vocals, something familiar to Funeral Doom fans.
Chapter 1: Delirium was released worldwide on Nov. 19, 2007 from Firedoom Music, a section of Firebox Records, and offers almost 66 minutes of torturous, crushing Funeral Doom. Anyone who enjoys their metal with a bit of classical and orchestral elements thrown into the mix should take a listen to this album. It's definitely a special release and I can only hope that there will be a Chapter 2.
Rating: 4.5/5
