In late 2017, the Melbourne gig scene suffered a huge loss with the passing of Nathan Johnston. For Dr Colossus, they lost far more than that; they lost their drummer, founding member, and best friend.
Now returning with Josh Heel behind the kit and Joel Colliver as another new addition, Dr Colossus are fucking back with their newest single ‘66&6’; the ominous and brutal number which is inspired by none other than Rod and Todd Flanders.
Wait I’ve forgotten something here… If you were unaware, Dr Colossus is a doom metal act who are completely based on The Simpsons. Yes, you read that right, and no, they don’t have a song about the ‘Sproose Moose’.
“I’m sure there will be one day,” laughs Jono Colliver, the groups lead vocalist. “We’ll make sure we give you the final listen before we release it. You can be the approver.” (I’ll take that.)
“There are a few on the back burner which we have wanted to do for a while,” he says. “There is some Willie-based stuff which we have wanted to do for a while. That idea may or may not also be a homage to Zeppelin’s ‘Immigrant Song’, and then we kind of want to use the Bumblebee man in some form as well with his ‘Ay Ay Ay’s’ and that idea is also kind of a homage to Ozzy Osbournes ‘Crazy Train’.”
Touching on ‘66&6’, Jono spoke of the difference in recording, with this single being the first time Dr Colossus have hit the studio since Nathan passed.
“It wasn’t an easy decision to continue the band, but it was an easy decision to do a tribute show for Nathan,” he explains. “We did that at The Cherry Bar and we asked Josh to play drums for that show and we all had a really good time playing those songs with him and just getting a different sensibility.
“I think the new lineup felt good and felt like it was something new, and I think that made the decision to keep going as a band a bit easier.
“That new song is mainly written by Joel so that was pretty much the first contribution he made to the band. We have the view that there is no such thing as a new member, so we always encourage everyone to contribute as much as they can.”
With a new album set for 2020 and a mammoth tour planned for September and October, the newly reformed Dr Colossus has a forward trajectory as rapid as the Springfield Monorail, but they will also be stopping into this years Kennedy’s Creek (which if you haven’t been to before, it’s a festival worth checking out).
“That’ll be awesome,” he shares. “We haven’t really seen too many heavy bands at Kennedy’s before so we were a bit surprised when we got asked. We go every year and have wanted to play it for ages now so I am super excited for that.”
“Generally it’s fairly up and coming trendy bands, not dumb old heavy rock bands but this year it’ll be good to mix with that crew.”
Ohhh god damn, I can’t wait. Catch me front left drinking tinnies with the Stone of Triumph attached to me for that show. Otherwise, catch them at The BC on September 6th, it’ll be the blurst of times.