Album Review: Dr Colossus – “I’m a Stupid Moron With an Ugly Face and A Big Butt and my Butt Smells and I Like to Kiss My Own Butt” 9/10 (Stoner Doom)

Written by Carcassbomb

Dr Colossus – I’m a Stupid Moron With an Ugly Face and A Big Butt and my Butt Smells and I Like to Kiss My Own Butt
Stoner doom/rock from Melbourne, Australia
Releases May 26th, 2021
9/10

This is a big one for me, Dr Colossus have been my favorite Australian band since flooring me with The Dank in 2018. They combine good old Aussie stoner rock and stories told using The Simpsons. Fans of the show will have unlimited fun picking apart the references, I know I did with The Dank when I reviewed it. For this one, I’ll let the readers discover them for themselves since the band was cool enough to get me such an early listen of the album and I don’t want to spoil too much. Dr Colossus are back with a new LP, new merch and an Australian tour!

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Where The Dank was a dark and brooding album telling stories of grief and tragedy through the lens of The Simpsons story arcs and jokes, this new album is more triumphant in energy and feels like a big come up for the band musically and in terms of outlook. If I say “this new album” a lot it’s because the mad bastards made an album title so long that even that abbreviation IASMWaUFaABBaMBSaILtKMOB is too long and unwieldy to remember or use. It’s a level meme commitment that I very much appreciate. Only so many bands can be so bold.

The current single is the upbeat “Pickabar” which is a pretty good reflection of the vibe to expect from this album. There’s a lot of catchy guitar riffs that back off the gain and distortion a bit compared to previous work. Like a doomier ZZ Top. “Lard Lad” is the third track following “Pickabar” and is more representative of the downer side with an epic ballad. The climbing riff on this track is very fulfilling, with a similar tone and gaze to fellow Australian doomers Holy Serpent. Even with the sadder sound and theme, the song still doesn’t feel super dark, it’s laced with a heaping of psychedelic undertones that always sounds motivated like an acid head on an all too important yet utterly unclear mission. There’s a sense of soaring strength to it that is enhanced by additional gang vocals that bring to mind a group of Simpsons character arms locked singing around a fire as the clouds form various known faces to sing along.

As with all Australian stoner rock, the blues plays a large role in the music here with winding expressive guitar solos. “So Long Stinktown” is a straight up rock anthem dripping with empowerment. It has the bounce and catchiness of Clutch and Tenacious D, using guitars with little distortion and rolling rhythms. I’m really looking forward to seeing these songs performed live. I saw them in Brisbane in 2019 and the Dr Colossus live experience is something else, they perform the songs up to snuff with the studio quality and they put on a fully energized and costumed performance. These songs sound like they’re written to completely destroy live in the room. I’m really enjoying the alt-rock/grunge style of the impassioned vocal deliveries, which overall across the album are more varied than ever.

Dr Colossus makes music that really speaks to the listener, almost like a drunk relative trying to recount stories from their life wistfully. Every song is delivered with an emphasis on lyrics and capturing a moment. Each song is super dramatic and always in character, kind of reminding me of Act II by The Protomen and what they did with the Megaman universe. Taking a “realistic” look at the fantastical and absurd source material then dramatically heightening it to emphasize the emotions or motives behind each character.

The album ends with the colossal 11-minute track “Space Coyote” that will surely get stuck in your head for the rest of the year along with the many highly memorable songs on this album. Dr Colossus are all about being memorable and tip-toeing on the edge between meme humor and artistic expression. This is the perfect next step for the band and I’m a Stupid Moron With an Ugly Face and A Big Butt and my Butt Smells and I Like to Kiss My Own Butt is a colorful new entry into a discography that very much feels vibrant and living.

9/10