In the history of extreme music, geography is often destiny. The suffocating humidity of Florida, the frozen forests of Norway, the industrial decay of Birmingham—these environments imprint themselves upon the music, becoming as integral as any instrument. For decades, the sound of Colombian metal has been inextricably bound to the socio-political violence that defined the nation, particularly the city of Medellín, during the 1980s. It was a music of survival, a visceral response to a world of daily horror. Now, from this same nation, emerges a statement of profound artistic transcendence.
Following their artistic rebirth with the single ‘I Awaken’ and the recruitment of an international-caliber drummer, the band Brainblast has announced its debut full-length album, ‘Colossus Suprema,’ scheduled for release on November 11, 2025, through Vmbrella Records.
The work represents a monumental declaration of intent: to move the narrative of Colombian metal away from the earthly scream of its past and toward a universal symphony of the spirit.
Colombia: The Cauldron of Ultra Metal
To comprehend the significance of Brainblast’s ambition, one must first understand the crucible in which Colombian metal was formed.
The scene that emerged in Medellín during the 1980s was not an artistic movement in the conventional sense; it was a sonic reflex to the city’s status as one of the most violent places on earth, a condition fueled by social inequality and the drug wars. From this turmoil came a sound that local adherents would call “Ultra Metal,” a term coined because the music sounded as if it had emanated from beyond the grave, or ultratumba.
This was a primitive, nihilistic fusion of metal and hardcore punk, a primal scream from a generation for whom death was a daily reality.
Pioneering bands like Parabellum and Reencarnación were the architects of this sound, their music a direct reflection of the chaos surrounding them. Their recordings were raw, not as a stylistic choice, but as a document of their circumstances—a combination of thematic necessity, social isolation, and a scarcity of resources.
This was an aesthetic born of survival, a sound of “unprecedented nihilism, evil and extremity.” The influence of this isolated scene was so potent that it would later be cited as a key inspiration by figures like Øystein “Euronymous” Aarseth of the Norwegian black metal band Mayhem.
As the years passed, a second wave of bands, most notably Masacre, refined this chaos into a more recognizable form of death metal, using the music as a vital act of remembrance for the country’s violent history.1 This lineage established a powerful narrative: that Colombian metal was, at its core, a response to conflict, a soundtrack for enduring a violent present.
It is precisely this expectation—that the country’s art must be forever defined by its past—that makes Brainblast’s evolution so profound. Their embrace of academic composition and spiritual inquiry represents a monumental generational and philosophical shift from reaction to creation.
Brainblast: A Deliberate Evolution
Brainblast’s journey began not with a rejection of this history, but with a mastery of its contemporary forms. Founded in 2015 by multi-instrumentalist and academic composer Edd Jiménez, the band’s official channel describes its mission as fusing “the ruthless precision of technical death metal with the grandeur of orchestral and classical composition.”
The band’s 2019 debut, the ‘Primal Impulse’ EP, was a formidable opening statement, a collection of four songs that showcased an immense talent and a clear grasp of technical death metal’s demanding conventions. The release earned acclaim in the underground, including a crucial endorsement from Tom Geldschläger, the renowned guitarist for the German technical death metal titans Obscura, who mixed and mastered the EP.
Geldschläger declared that Brainblast “rivals their skill on this debut release that of much bigger and established bands.”
Yet, for all its technical brilliance, the EP was also seen by some as the work of an artist demonstrating mastery over an existing form, not yet the creation of a new one. One review, while praising the music, described it as “pretty hard Obscura worship” that filtered its melodies through the “bouncy feel of Beyond Creation’s compositions”. This critique, however, may have been the catalyst for the band’s radical reinvention.
The true turning point came with an act of audacious reinterpretation. In 2024, the band released a cover of ‘Pull the Plug,’ a foundational text from the 1988 album ‘Leprosy’ by the band Death. To cover the work of Death’s visionary founder, the late Chuck Schuldiner, is to engage with the very DNA of the genre.
Brainblast, however, did not offer a simple tribute. They radically reconstructed the song, infusing it with the “modern symphonic and technical elements” that would become their signature. This was an act of supreme confidence, a strategic bridge between reverence for the past and a declaration of a new future. It was with this new philosophy that the band coined its own genre tag: “symphonic techdeath metal.”
This was more than a label; it was a mission statement announcing the fusion of extreme metal’s kinetic brutality with the grand, intellectual architecture of classical composition.
Harbingers of ‘Colossus Suprema’
The full realization of this new doctrine was unveiled through three pre-release singles, each serving as a chapter in the album’s unfolding narrative. The first, 2024’s ‘I Awaken,’ was a mission statement. Described by the band as a “monumental sound that redefines the boundaries of genre,” the track is a masterful blend of relentless, precision-focused instrumentation and complex orchestration.2
It creates an atmosphere of immense scale, the feeling of something ancient and powerful stirring from a long slumber. This was the arrival of a new consciousness.
The album’s title track, ‘Colossus Suprema,’ released in 2025, served as the second harbinger, escalating the principles of its predecessor. The band calls it their “most ambitious creation,” a “monumental blend of relentless technicality and overwhelming orchestral grandeur.”
The track features a guest performance by the renowned Canadian fretless bassist Dominic Forest Lapointe, known for his work with First Fragment and formerly of Beyond Creation. Lapointe is one of the most respected fretless bass players in the world, and his virtuosic involvement is a significant act of validation, connecting Brainblast to the highest echelon of the international technical metal community. Sonically, the track is the embodiment of its title: a massive entity where the fretless bass weaves through dense orchestral layers as a distinct melodic voice.
Most recently, the band unveiled ‘Relentless Rise,’ the third and final single before the album’s release. The track is a furious statement piece, living up to its name with an onslaught of technical riffing and powerful orchestral swells that convey a sense of unstoppable momentum. It serves as the final piece of the narrative puzzle, transitioning from the grand unveiling of the album’s central figure to the depiction of its unstoppable ascent to power.
A Monument to the Spirit
Synthesizing the evidence of the music, official statements, and visual presentation reveals ‘Colossus Suprema’ to be a meticulously constructed total work of art. The conceptual key is found in the words of founder Edd Jiménez, who states, “This album is a monument… It is conceived as a spiritual experience through extremity and drama… something divine.”.
The work is inspired by deeply personal experiences related to the “awakening of the inner being, life after death, and the evolution of the spirit,” moving the thematic focus from earthly conflict to mystical inquiry.
This spiritual framework is codified in the album’s visual art, created by the French designer Pierre-Alain D. of 3mmi Design. Known for his dark, poetic compositions, he has crafted a cover that perfectly visualizes the album’s themes. It depicts the colossal, stone head of a classical deity, its eyes blazing with divine light as lightning cracks across its surface.
The figure floats in a cosmic expanse above a planet, surrounded by shattered astronomical instruments, a majestic representation of ancient power and spiritual expansion on a universal scale. The album’s structure, as revealed by its tracklist, mirrors this journey. The ten compositions, presented in a continuous narrative, are titled ‘Plvs Vltra,’ ‘Legio Æterna,’ ‘Colossus Suprema,’ ‘Relentless Rise,’ ‘Cælvs Elixir,’ ‘Interludium,’ ‘Unchain Your Soul,’ ‘Superior Entity,’ ‘The Solemn Ethereal Realm,’ and ‘Armageddon.’
This sequence suggests a deliberate arc, moving from a declaration of ambition (‘Plvs Vltra,’ meaning “Further Beyond”) through conflict and ascension to a state of spiritual transformation, culminating in a final, cosmic event. The inclusion of an ‘Interludium’ further points to a self-consciously classical structure.
Every component—music, concept, art, and structure—is unified in service of a single, monumental idea. The album was co-produced by Edd Jiménez, who also handled songwriting, orchestration, guitars, and vocals.
It will be available on all digital platforms and in a physical format, with pre-orders currently available on the band’s Bandcamp page, and at the time of this announcement, no touring dates have been scheduled in support of the release.
Writing a New Canon
‘Colossus Suprema’ is more than an album; it is a declaration. It represents a generational and philosophical leap for a musical culture long defined by its reaction to historical trauma. Consciously turning away from the immediate and the terrestrial toward the spiritual and the universal, Brainblast is not simply adding another chapter to the story of Colombian metal.
They are attempting to write a new canon entirely, one where the scream of survival has finally been allowed to evolve into a symphony of existence.
Brainblast’s artistic journey represents a deliberate shift from a sound forged by a specific national trauma to one aspiring toward universal spiritual and philosophical themes. For those who have followed the evolution of extreme music, how does this transition reflect broader trends within the global metal community, and what does it suggest about the changing relationship between art, identity, and place in the twenty-first century?
References
- Pedro Manuel Lagos Chacón, ‘The Role of Death Metal in the Colombian Armed Conflict: The Case of the Band Masacre,’ in Heavy Metal Music in Latin America: Perspectives from the Distorted South, ed. Nelson Varas-Díaz, Daniel Nevárez Araújo, and Eliut Rivera-Segarra (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2022), 81–106. ↩︎
- Restrepo García, Ramón Reinaldo. ‘Ultra Metal El eslabón perdido…’, accessed October 10, 2025 ↩︎
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