When someone comes to you and says “Hey, check out this band from Grand Rapids, Minnesota. They have a ‘very unique sound.’” What comes to mind? I guarantee you’d never think it would be Coeus The Boxing Titan.
I can’t help but begin to explain their style in their own words “if Pink Floyd became a Faith No More cover Band.”
Yeah, we’ll let that sink in a little bit.
Growing from roots in a small town in northern Minnesota, Aron “Aro” Patterson developed Coeus The Boxing Titan as a proclamation of what needs to happen with psychedelic, funk-infused, industrial rock. As abstract as it may seem, he’s definitely onto something.
Releasing The Boxing Titan Spawns has opened my eyes to a style uniquely its own. Heavy handed distortion and effect dependency certainly does not detract from the sound. The well thought out eleven tracks come in at least four plus minutes each but don’t bore. As “Tensions in Cloudland” eases the album open you’re quickly thrown into the grasps of Coeus. Singing lyrics such as “Battlefield Earth/The idea’s the fight” the intelligible sound flows with purpose, melting the tracks together on an identifiable but hypnotic experience. Certainly delivering on the promise of a Floyd infused Mike Patton experience, “Like Vegas” brilliantly incorporates down-tempo experimentation with ambient sounds and memorable ominous rock. Superficially, the track names alone are enough to pique the interest of a passerby. Like a brilliantly planned marketing ploy “February, This is for you,” “Tension in Cloudland” and “God’s In a Lab in California” draw you in to hear what could possibly prompt such a title.
Like a well-controlled industrial chaos experiment, The Boxing Titan Spawns is a beautiful convergence of rock, both new and old in style, and heavy tenacity. The album stretches to the edges of its own possibilities and in all of its vastness feels well brought together and planned out. Deep crevasses of dark instrumentals survive well within a mix of hip-hop beats, electronic surges and ambient fades. Like a finely crafted world all its own Aro and Coeus develop a personality and memorable quality with The Boxing Titan Spawns.