CaliAlive.com

I recently had the pleasure of catching two shows on the From Ashes Rise, Paint it Black and Coliseum tour. From ashes rise was awesome, as was paint it black, but I'd have to say the best part of the shows was simply watching Louisville's Coliseum.

I had never heard them before and these two shows turned out to be the beginning of an intense two month love affair with their new 8 song EP Goddamage.

If Motorhead and to a lesser degree from ashes rise musical abilities and creative forces were somehow able to fuck and produce offspring, the child would be Coliseum. Goddamage is chockfull of furiously driving riffs that are rocking enough to give most any Motorhead fan at least a chubby, but also have that high, full guitar tone, a fast punk rock pace, and most importantly an at times dark and apocalyptic sound that keeps me drawing comparisons to from ashes rise. Goddamage is definitely not a purely fast record, however. The more mid-paced parts are decently less reminiscent of Motorhead but more of a darker, fuller, better recorded annihilation time without lyrics about drugs and skateboarding. These mid-paced parts are extremely enjoyable, and this record never ceases to retain a high amount of energy and a feeling that the band meant to give much of the world a big middle finger while still having a pretty good god damn time.

Vocalist/guitarist Ryan Patterson's vocals are just about as well done as the rest of this EP. They're deep, throaty and contain enough dirty punk/rock and roll attitude to make you want to tell a cop to go fuck himself. The closest comparison I could draw would be to Chris Colohan's vocals in cursed mixed with the kind of dirty rock attitude that Lemmy of Motorhead is known so well for. Lastly, drummer Matt Jaha's abilities are at the very least up to par with his fellow band mates. He managed to steal a decent amount of my attention when I saw the band, and I recall him having a pretty killer stache, too.

I've made a lot of comparisons to other bands in this review, but Goddamge never seems boring or ripped off. It seems to me that Coliseum pulled off exactly what they were trying to do here (and at the same time prove once again that manic ride records is one of the best labels around right now.) From the vocals to the artwork to the recording, I don't know if this EP could be more well done for what it is, which is commendable across the board whether you like this style of music or not. So stop by www.manicriderrecords.com and download 'head down and burn,' which is easily one of the best songs on Goddamage.