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Listening to “Chapter I: Delirium” can be compared to sitting in a cemetery and doing nothing but observing your surroundings for a day. You arrive at the cemetery, sit down and immediate start fidgeting, wondering how you can possibly make yourself stay in one place for a whole day. After a while, you start to notice some interesting things going on around you. A woman visit’s the grave of a loved one, and you notice the pain on her face as she grieves. You watch the old grounds keeper make his rounds, and notice as he irreverently urinates behind one of the larger monuments. In the distance, you hear a priest give his eulogy as mourners gather for a funeral. You notice the birds nesting in the stonework of an ill-kept mausoleum. After a few hours, your realize that you are surrounded by interesting sights and sounds, you find that your time in the cemetery is passing relatively quickly and that sitting there is actually enjoyable on some level.
In more tangible terms, Colosseum play ultra-slow, plodding doom metal. The coupling of thick sludgy rhythms with slow melodic guitars to form the core of their sound. The vocal are invariably delivered in a harsh death growl, and tempo changes are few and far between. Beneath this foundation is an interesting web of synth work that adds a good deal of depth to the compositions. The end result is greater than the sum of the parts and repeated, patient listens are rewarded.
Despite it’s strong points it is easy to loose your place in this album, and it almost sounds like one long song. I am no expert on funeral doom but this is one of the more palatable examples of the genre that I have heard. If you like really slow doom metal with harsh vocals than I highly recommend this. Others should proceed with caution, as “Chapter I Delirium” is likely to bore the piss out the average metal fan. This is one of the drawbacks of operating on the lunatic fringe of one of metal’s sub genres, it simply won’t appeal to everybody.
Rating: 79
Reviewed By: Garett F.