Hey Colossus

Since the early 2000s, English sextet Hey Colossus has developed its distinctive strain of melodic noise rock marked by a doom-laden character. Although personnel shifted repeatedly, the group’s foundation stayed anchored in founders Joe Thompson on bass and Robert Davis on vocals and guitars. Shaped by Krautrock, psych metal, and acts including Fugazi, Faith No More, the Fall, Nirvana, and Nine Inch Nails, childhood friends Thompson and Davis spent the 1990s launching multiple projects before launching Hey Colossus itself in 2003. Their first EP, Hey Colossus Hates You, surfaced in 2004 and was succeeded the following year by II. Project: Death appeared in 2007, after which the band sustained an almost annual release cadence that extended through 2011. A retrospective collection of their initial decade, Dedicated to Uri Klanger (2003-2013), came out in 2013, the same year that brought Cuckoo Live Life Like Cuckoo. Two further LPs arrived in 2015: In Black and Gold and Radio Static High. By 2017 the lineup had stabilized around Paul Sykes on vocals and keys, Timothy Farthing on vocals and guitar, Rhys Llewellyn on drums, and Roo Farthing on guitar and keys, the same year the group issued The Guillotine on Rocket Recordings.