George Kollias - Invictus

George Kollias

Invictus

by Matt "Wolverine" Johnson at 16 June 2015, 3:43 PM

In what will be touted (much like I am doing now) as one of the breakthrough solo albums of the year, NILE's own master skinsman George Kollias has released "Invictus": a dominating, fifteen-track machine that turns out song after song of everything someone could expect of one of the top names in Metal drumming. His vision is complete, and not that he had to prove anything to the world at all, courtesy of his reputation with blasting out beats for NILE, but he has more than outdone himself with this one. It is only fitting that the title should be the actual word for something done tout seul.

One can tell that every note, beat, and breath put into each song was thought out, scrutinized, and mastered before they were all recorded. Combining elements of Black Metal and Death Metal for the instrumentation, there is a profound heaviness that permeates the speakers. When I say heavy, I mean for "Invictus" to possess the kind of weight that would obliterate entire galaxies. The riffs are absolute ear candy for lovers of somewhat-melodic tunes that are more or less designed to blow your fucking mind with an immeasurable fuckton of brutality.

Referring back to my mention of the two prime genres I was able to pick out from the perpetual destruction, I would like to elaborate. it is fitting that George picked up another special Grecian to take a guest spot on the album. The unholy George Emmanuel, guitarist for none other than ROTTING CHRIST takes up the strings for "Shall Rise/Shall Be Dead", giving that song that evil Black Metal feel despite starting off fairly slowly. On the Death Metal side, of course none other than Karl Sanders of NILE should make an appearance, influencing me to describe "Voices" as one of my chosen favorites on the album. Also, the main riff gives provides an impression of DIMMU BORGIR's catchy hit, "Puritania" so I mark that as another reason the song goes under the plus column

But hell, every song goes under the plus column, for George Kollias has not only established himself many years ago for his work with NILE, but has almost too-easily masterminded "Invictus". I'm pretty sure he's a robot. A very, very Metal robot. But since he's not an android or even a computer-generated music simulator and can show up at a show and make your ears bleed, I'm giving this a perfect score. Keep up the epic work, Mr. Kollias!