Band:	Colosseum
Album:	Chapter 1: Delirium
Style:	Funeral doom metal
Release date:	November 19, 2007
A review by:	Jeff

01. The Gate Of Adar
02. Corridors Of Desolation
03. Weathered
04. Saturnine Vastness
05. Aesthetics Of The Grotesque
06. Delirium

Colosseum is the new Funeral Doom project of Juhani Palomäki, the famous band member of the cult but unfortunately not so well-know, Yearning. Even if Yearning is a band which produces dark music, I can tell you that the fans of the combo will be a bit disoriented by this new production. That's simple, "Chapter I: Delirium" is a real album of dark and slow Doom Metal, it's not so easy to enter in this kind of music but if you like to listen to it I'm sure that "Chapter I: Delirium" will be for you.

"Chapter I: Delirium" is slowww?. Damn this is not something "excited" but it doesn't mean that it's bad, at the opposite this kind of albums and releases are in general really deep and extremely intelligent and the first album of Colosseum doesn't break this rule. I'm sure that some people (even the fans of Yearning) will not enter easily into the music of Collosseum but if you take your time and like really dark and disturbing ambiances, I can tell you that you'll like a lot "Chapter I: Delirium". Big heavy slow riffs and really cold and slow beats in addition of funeral Death vocals (which are really well done and really melodic, like with Yearning) compose this album. I really like the ambiances of the releases which are cold like dirty iron and which all give a really disturbing feeling. But Juhani Palomäki is a great compositor and this album is full of great songs. It's not dark to be dark and not cold to be cold, this is just a matter of ambiance and since that all the songs are really well composed with some great melodies, the music of this album is in the end really beautiful.

The production of the album is good even if the artwork (which finally fits to the spirit of the band) is really simple. This album is long and all the songs have a length of ten minutes in general. Since that the performance of the members is really good too, I have nothing to say against this release, it's just some top-notch Doom Metal and I think that the fans will agree with me. Though evidently this is an album which is really hard of access and I doubt that the ones who don't know or like this kind of music will fall in love with it through this release. It's great but for fans only unfortunately.

We know that Juhani Palomäki is a great compositor and his performance with his new band Colosseum just confirms it. I really recommend you to check this first album (and don't forget Yearning if you don't know them yet) if you use to listen to Funeral Doom. "Chapter I: Delirium" is a classy Doom Metal release, don't miss it if you pretend to like and listen to such kind of music.