I must admit, sometimes I just pick up bands with names that sound like I could like their music. And a name like MEGA COLOSSUS is certainly an extremely interesting one, since it hinted at something monolithic, delivers music of enormous power and staggering heavy to epic proportions. With that in mind I found that North Carolina based MEGA COLOSSUS returns rather quickly with their new record “Watch Out!”, since releasing their fourth full-length “Showdown” back in 2024. Their growing discography suggests, since the enticing debut “…And The Rift Of The Pan-Dimensional Undergods” (2008), which offered their self-dubbed ‘Adventure Metal’, the band’s deep rooted high-flying drive hasn’t slumped a bit. But the band grows with creating attention-grabbing sounds, like entanglement of Power Metal’s grandness, frankness of Thrash Metal and the classy melodicism of NWOBHM. And in this latest record, the quintets of Sean Buchanan (vocals), Bill Fischer and Chris Millard (guitars), Anthony Micale (bass) and Doza on Hawes (drums) hoarded to carry those over from the very beginning. The opener ‘The Bad Thing’ comes out as a moody listen by their standards. Like seen in the fatal cover art (by Chris Prince), which has a much darker color palette than those that came out visually from them before. The opener suggests a sinister progression immediately, starting with a slow and brooding atmosphere before erupting into massive thrashing energy. Buchanan’s vocal deliverances are something to admire and surely addictive to say the least with narrating of some of the thought-provoking lyrics. While lines like “this is awesome” in ‘Tag In Your Friend’ highlight their fun forward with almost tongue-in-cheek sincerity, yet the band never hides behind irony. This is genuine love for golden era that inspires them. As the record moves along the songs grow in intricacy, with the ‘Good Hunting’ and ‘The Halls Of Mystikos’ providing enough twists to fulfill their epic promises. Though both numbers feel slightly less heavy than its predecessor, but they recall the splendid eccentricities of VISIGOTH and ETERNAL CHAMPION. As heard in ‘Good Hunting’, where the guitarist duo of Bill and Chris showed their charisma in riffages and dual guitar harmonic duets with captivating solos. Adding in the tight and solid drumming, and the molten bass lines underneath that’s boosts and carried over with some epic vocal lines, it’s certainly one of the strongest numbers of the record. It’s also spoke favorably about the long-earned maturity of these Heavy Metallers in songwriting and ways of keeping the appeal intact from start to finish. Closing in, the RUSH flavored ‘Here Lies You’ and the MANOWAR tinged ‘Bloodless’ ended the record with reminding their characteristic punches of ‘Adventure’ Metal. The production is suitably warm and has that organic touch which is necessary for anyone to recall the undying sensation of ’80s, most importantly sounding authentic in current era. With all these, MEGA COLOSSUS delivered a fantastic and amusing journey which recorded with fullest of exploratory passions, where they finely kept the essence of Heavy Metal intact while growing on sincerely with heavy duty individuality. These all says it loud enough that why one need to watch out for “Watch Out!”, as with those “whoa-oah-oah” choruses and upbeat spirits soar throughout the record length, it is a refreshingly earnest ride in a cynical world. To find out more about the band and label, visit www.facebook.com/colossusmetal or www.facebook.com/cruzdelsurmusic.