After a series of self-titled debuts (Driftwood, Queens of the Stone Age, Midnight Oil), we turn to probably one of the finest-titled debut albums ever. Given the title of the album and the name of the band, it seems like this should be some kind of legendary proto-metal album, but Colosseum isn't that kind of band, plus this was 1969, predating Black Sabbath's first album and Deep Purple's In Rock.
Colosseum isn't very well known in the US. In fact, I think I only heard about this album because it had a song featured in the British version of Life On Mars. Actually I just looked it up and the song was "I Can't Live Without You", which was either on another album of theirs or a bonus track from the version I didn't purchase. Anyhow, Colosseum was a late arrival in the British blues boom of the late 1960's, with a distinctly more jazz-oriented sound (only half the songs have vocals). Their connections to earlier bands is evident in the choice of "Walking in the Park", a cover of a Graham Bond Organisation song. Later albums would be increasingly prog and less bluesy, while the lineup was fairly fluid throughout. Drummer John Hiseman would revive the band later in the 1970's as Colosseum II, with a heap of session players like Gary Moore, Neil Murray, and Don Airey, all of whom would be closely tied to the metal and hard rock scenes of the 1980's.
I've heard some of the later stuff and it's quite good, dare I say better than this album. I'm looking forward to absorbing those later albums into the collective.
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