Interview met Mega Colossus
Doza: “We are a group of friends who make music together, we don’t take ourselves too seriously and we like to have a good time. This comes out in our music naturally as an extension of who we are”
Het pas verschenen ‘Watch Out!’ is het vijfde studioalbum van Mega Colossus en alhoewel de band regelmatig te zien is op podia – ook in Europa – wilden we ze een duwtje in de rug geven met dit interview. We zijn blij verrast met de interessante repliek van elk bandlid en kunnen zelfs een mijlpaal noteren, want dit was het laatste interview dat de vertrekkende drummer Doza deed. Hartverwarmend dank! Geniet van de stevige, maar meeslepende heavy metal van deze Amerikaanse band!
Vera Matthijssens Ι 24 april 2026
Hello guys! How are you doing? I hope you enjoyed the recent tour in Europe. What about this experience? How was it?
Doza: ‘This was by far our best tour yet. We’ve been coming over to Europe since 2017, this was our fifth tour. Each one builds on the previous, and for this one we had amazing festivals with killer club shows in between. Our new album, ‘Watch Out!’ released during the tour. Everything came together on this one in a big way for us. Our fans in Europe are amazing!’
Sean: ‘It was a huge success for us. We pushed ourselves to the limit several times, but it was all worth it once we got on stage and got to see how excited everyone was for us to be there!’
Bill: ‘Yeah this one was next level! Everyone at home is asking how it went, and I’m a little freaked out that my answer is “it’s crazy, it went as planned”, because that never happens.’
Anthony: ‘We had the best time! The family grows ever larger every gig and we love making new friends and of course seeing old ones! It’s like a family reunion every night.’
Chris: ‘It was so much fun! We got to see so many of our friends and we even made a bunch of new ones! The new songs have been going down super well live and everybody has been singing a lot already!’
But you have been in Europe before. When was it, how long ago? You played at several festivals too isn’t it in Europe?
Doza: ‘We played on this tour Hell Over Hammaburg, Steel Held High, Full Metal Osthessen, and Up the Hammers. All great fests, and we got to share the stage with killer bands!’
Sean: ‘We were just over in 2024, Headbangers Open Air invited us and we couldn’t turn it down! That was the first European tour where I feel like we cracked the code. Even at one week it was a really great tour. So this time we said, “Why not 4 weeks?”’
Bill: ‘This was Europe tour number 5 for us. They all were cool, wonderful times, but this one wins the prize!’
Chris: ‘Yeah each one is bigger and better! Love the festivals but love the packed club shows too.’
Anthony: ‘We played some new places on this tour and it’s so fun to get to experience new places and people.’
The band was founded in 2005 as Colossus. How did it come into being and why this (small) change of band name in 2016?
Doza: ‘I joined in 2010, so I was not there for the origin. As for the name change, this was due to there being several bands called Colossus, even though we were the first, the others refused to give up the name when we contacted them. We even offered a battle of the bands, which they declined. We decided to add Mega to reflect our dominance over all other Colossi and make ourselves easier to find online.’
Sean: ‘The band started way back then when some friends and I decided to play some Iron Maiden songs. I had been playing in rock bands and punk bands for years, but I had some heavier lyrics floating around I had always wanted to use. We started writing originals and never actually performed any Maiden until years later! The name change is exactly as Doza described. I like Mega Colossus better, it’s more original and to me harkens to Kaiju lore, which we all love.’
Anthony: ‘This is my 9th year in Mega Colossus, I joined just after ‘Hyperglaive’ and the name change. Like Chris, these guys were my favorite long before I joined.’
Chris: ‘Colossus was my favorite band for 10 years before I joined in late 2020.’
Was their enough support in North Carolina to support you and make the first steps to recognition? When did you start playing live as well?
Doza: ‘We love our fans at home. We are a family and they’ve been supporting us for years. We are so grateful for our fans at home across our state, from Asheville, to Charlotte, to the Triangle, and Wilmington.’
Sean: ‘We started playing out pretty quickly, once we had like 5-6 songs. I remember the first show was also the first time I had a full beer poured on my face while singing! Which was actually done out of excitement and not negative feedback… The support from our friends and fans has always been amazing, I think people really took to our habit of not taking ourselves too seriously.’
Bill: ‘My first show with the band was that first year and was in someone’s living room. It was super packed, I got hit with some full beers, thrown with encouraging love I’m sure, people flew over us into the drum kit, it was crazy. So it’s always been fun, and our hometown rules. But venturing out has been the best.’
Chris: ‘The first time I saw this band I was 18 and it was my first time playing outside of my hometown, my band played the bar that Bill owned at the time and I legitimately thought they were the best band on the planet.’
As I understand vocalist Sean and guitarist Bill are the original members in the band. Why did you choose for traditional heavy metal and what bands did influence you in the beginning? Can you tell a bit more about those early days?
Sean: ‘I remember when our first bass player Ry suggested Bill as a guitar player. He said, “I went to see Iron Maiden with him, and when they came out he started crying!” I said, “That’s our guy!” Back then I was mostly influenced by Rob Halford, Hammerfall and Slough Feg.’
Bill: ‘Yep, I had been in a few bands mostly prog punk kinda stuff, but maiden and British metal and Bay Area thrash were where I came from mentally. So this was a way to finally have the band I always wanted. And yeah when I finally saw maiden after all those years… I cried.’
We should make sure that fans know that you are a metal band with quite a positive attitude. No daily or world-wide problems or anger, but entertainment to bring pleasure. I think this is an important approach for you,isn’t it?
Doza: ‘This is something that reflects us as people. We are a group of friends who make music together, we don’t take ourselves too seriously and we like to have a good time. This comes out in our music naturally as an extension of who we are. That being said we will make a stand and speak out politically against authoritarianism, which we have done this year in the midst of all the political chaos here in the US.’
Sean: ‘It definitely is important to us to have a positive attitude. We let our lyrics speak for themselves as far as our stance on politics and the state of the world, but eventually we felt the need to make a statement and align ourselves with what we think is right publicly. The response to that was incredible, as we thought our fans are right in line with us.’
Bill: ‘I think songs about resisting tyranny and coming together during rough times resonate right now. We’ve never been great at overt political lyrics, but I am happy that we have these sci fi and fantastic subjects that support our world view. I don’t want to be a band who is afraid to show how they feel about the world.’
Anthony: ‘I can’t speak for everyone but I think we don’t write to be trad metal, we kind of just let the songs take us where they go.’
Chris: ‘Luckily we are all on the same page personality wise as a band.’
And this is also reflected in the lyrics. Which things inspire you most when writing lyrics?
Doza: ‘I’ve written several songs about movies that I think match the spirit of the band, Robocop, Bone Tomahawk, Lone Wolf and Cub— but none of those have made it to an album yet— except one. ‘Run to the Fight’, on ‘Riptime’, is one I wrote about a comic book by my longtime friend Brockton McKinney, called Jenny Zero. She’s an antihero who can transform into a giant monster killer. When I read it I thought, this is perfect subject matter for us. Was so happy to play that song on my final tour!’
Sean: ‘And she listens to Mega Colossus in the comic book! I get inspired by stuff all the time. If it’s so cool that it makes my eyes fishbowl, it’s going into a song. I love to write songs about books, because I love to read and I feel like print doesn’t get as much respect in our super digital age.’
Bill: ‘Usually has been books over the years for me, but then more recently I got obsessed with Godzilla, Aliens, Mad Max universe, and then pro wrestling… so movies and TV are in my brain as well.’
Anthony: ‘Definitely a lot of sci fi and cultural stuff, I also like to try and write about real feelings and real emotions, though it is kind of difficult at times, I find it very rewarding when someone identifies with our personal lyrics.’
The line-up has been stable since 2021, but now I see that drummer Doza Mendoza left the band. How did you solve that during the tour? When did he leave exactly? What is the situation at the moment?
Doza: ‘This is my last interview. My last show was in Zurich March 21. The band is now rehearsing with a new drummer, soon to be announced! I’m excited for them and happy to see them carry on.’
Sean: ‘Yeah Doza is leaving us, but we got to spend an amazing tour together and we are parting ways on the best of terms! My dream for the band is for it to carry on, after I retire one day, even after Bill, Anthony & Chris retire! Hopefully it’s still going in 2000 years, playing on Jupiter or something.’
Bill: ‘Nobody has ruled their last tour, and finished on better terms than Doza! It is the most triumphant exit from a role I have ever witnessed. Doza will be missed! But I am super stoked about our next phase, and so glad we get to go on.’
Anthony: ‘Doza has been the best drummer, bandmate, comrade and friend that we ever could’ve dreamt of. So many great times and amazing memories. But just because he isn’t our drummer anymore doesn’t mean that we won’t continue having great times and creating new memories.’
Chris: ‘So bummed about Doza leaving but there’s no acrimony, its all good feelings (aside from sadness). He’ll still be around in other ways as a part of the band. So far its going well with our new drummer!’
But well… there is an excellent record out now, your fifth one ‘Watch Out!’. How are the reactions so far?
Doza: ‘We’ve gotten a great response from our fans. They supported us by pre-ordering the record and gave us great feedback at our online listening party. At the shows they’ve been singing along to the new songs. They already know the words so that’s a good sign they like it!’
Sean: ‘Love seeing all the positive reviews roll in! We put so much work into these records, as does our recording engineer Al Jacob. To see people respond with such appreciation is really special for us.’
Anthony: ‘The only negative thing I’ve seen was people didn’t love the order of songs. Also some guy said it sounded too produced and that Sean and I sounded like High School Musical 2 hahah!’
Chris: ‘I’m so proud of this record. I’m proud of all of them but this one is very special to me. So its been incredible seeing it get such a great response. Especially when we play the new songs live. I was worried that songs like ‘Here Lies You’ might cause a drop in energy but that hasn’t been the case at all.’
The album title ‘Watch Out!’ is a hint to Dio, isn’t it? Why did you entitled the album that way?
Sean: ‘Like most of our album titles that one came from some joke in the practice space, and we were like, “That’s it!” We are much less intentional with some of these things then people give us credit for. That being said, “The Sepulcher of the Mirror-Warlocks” is actually based on the Arthurian legend…’
Anthony: ‘Watch Out… Megacolossus is coming!’
‘The Halls Of Mystikos’ is inspired by Uriah Heep and it should be slightly different than usual. Can you tell a bit more about this great song and about your respect for Uriah Heep?
Doza: ‘This is an error, ‘The Halls of Mystikos’ is a tune written to honor a mysterious man the band met in Athens on a previous tour. It’s a straight up rock song. Our Uriah Heep inspired song is called ‘Here Lies You’.
Anthony: ‘The working title was actually “Wishbone Ass” so that’s very keen! I love ‘Here Lies You’, I think it’s refreshing to hear live at a heavy metal show. Something deep, breathy, emotional, heavy but light.’
Sean: ‘Yeah we kinda branched out with ‘Here Lies You’. The beginning almost reminds me of a Led Zeppelin song, before it gets heavy. Whenever we take risks like this, it pays off. People responded so well on tour to the song. The last time we were bold like this was with ‘Wicked Road’ off our album ‘Showdown’, and now we have to play it every show or people will get upset!’
Chris: ‘So, I wrote the music for this one the day after my dog Bytor passed away. I picked up my guitar to keep my mind occupied and this is what came out. I listen to a ton of Wishbone Ash and Uriah Heep and I love how their music conveys imagery or feelings, so I guess that naturally comes out in my playing. I didn’t even intend to write a song, and I especially didn’t intend for it to become a Mega Colossus song. The other guys heard it and encouraged me to use it so I put in a few parts to make it a more cohesive song and here we are.’
One of my favourites is ‘Good Hunting’. Can you tell a bit more about this song and how it was written?
Sean: ‘That song is about a character from The Expanse novels that I really love. If you haven’t read them and you like scifi, please read them! My fellow nerds had been bugging me to read it forever, finally a friend bought me the first three novels and I ripped through them. I was entranced. The writing team behind them is top notch. The song centers around a phrase the crew use when they are afraid they won’t see each other again, but don’t want to say goodbye. And the last scene of the character the song is written about is probably the most metal thing I’ve ever read.’
Chris: ‘Sean sent me a demo of the vocal idea of the chorus and explained what the song would be about, and then I immersed myself in The Expanse lore and tried to write music inspired by the feeling it gave me. The ‘you now, me later’ interlude was actually written spontaneously in the practice room, its a really special moment to me because all of us played almost exactly what you hear on the record the very first time we tried to mess with it.’
Anthony: ‘I’m glad you like that one! We love it. It’s turned into quite the burner to play live and is so much fun. I remember hearing it for the first time and imagining how much fun the rhythm section was going to have! It turned out great.’
As a mater of facts, what about the writing process? Are you still a band of friends who regularly meet to jam and write or is it a matter of sending files (I don’t know if you are living close to each other or not)?
Sean: ‘We definitely get together and play as much as possible. Someone will write a riff or come up with a melody and we take it from there. Or someone will just write a full song from start to finish. The results are pretty much always received with the same enthusiasm, so it’s working!’
Chris: ‘I’m a terrible lyricist so I concentrate on musical arrangements. I’ll bring in a song and then let everyone else add their parts on top of what I’ve written. Our songs are probably a little too complicated to write on the spot but we have definitely come up with cool stuff during practice, then we’ll make a recording of it and then whomever will go off and continue to refine it at their home.’
Anthony: ‘A little of both, but we see eachother regularly so we are always talking/ working/ joking, which is all work!’
I also love the folky touch of ‘Here Lies You’. Where does that come from? This storytelling style and folky touch is really done to a turn!
Doza: ‘This is our Uriah Heep inspired song. It’s also heavily influenced by Wishbone Ash, Ashbury, and classic rock in general. We played ‘The Wizard’ by Uriah Heep at a couple shows and our fans loved it so we knew we could get away with mixing in this style with our usual high energy madness.’
Sean: ‘Chris came up with this amazing song and I wanted to write lyrics and vocal melodies for it. He said while he was writing it he was thinking about a dilapidated castle we toured and an HP Lovecraft short story called ‘The Tomb’. I combined both those concepts and added in some fun medieval stuff and there you go!’
Chris: ‘I wrote parts of this song in 2009 when I was still in high school! Our 2025 US Tour I played ‘Argus’ by Wishbone Ash a bunch in the van and Doza asked why we didn’t have any music like that and could I write something like it. I still remembered the stuff I wrote years ago and so I pulled out my Flying V for full Wishbone Ash effect and started writing while imagining the castles we visited in 2024. I wrote two versions, the version on the record and a more riffy trad metal version and asked the band which one they liked better, unanimously it was the medieval version. Extremely proud of this song.’
And then some thoughts about the long epic track at the end ‘Bloodless’ would be nice too…
Sean: ‘’Bloodless’ was Bill’s opus on this record. He had wanted to write a song about The Kingkiller Chronicle (another must read!) for years and he finally had time to put it all together. I love it, people really responded to it on tour and it’s a blast to play!’
Doza: ‘Bill put in many hours on that one. I remember every few weeks he would update us, “made some more progress on Bloodless…” I was like wow this song is gonna be epic! And it is. It’s a bear to pull off live as well. When we get to that triumphant ending it also feels like a triumph that we completed the song, like crossing the finish line of a long race haha’
Chris: ‘I do my best playing on songs Bill wrote so I’m always extremely stoked to work out my parts for them. My favorite solo I did on this record is this one. Its not anywhere near my fastest or most technical but the first half of this song is like Evil Ratt so I wanted to write a total Ratt solo.’
Anthony: ‘Bill historically writes incredibly difficult songs, they really make you work your ass off, but the end results are always unprecedented. Such a fun song, so many parts. The “moonless nights” part is one of my favorite moments of the whole record.’
In which countries do you have the most success until now?
Doza: ‘Definitely Germany. Our fans there are amazingly supportive. The culture there is so cool the way they love underground metal. It’s an honor to be a part of that scene. For this recent tour we branched out into Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, and Switzerland. Would love to see the band head to the UK, the Nordic nations, and Japan. Make it happen boys!’
Sean: ‘Germany is so welcoming and our fans there are wonderful. But we find amazing people wherever we go! Our recent tour of the US was actually really fun and turned out well so we are gonna try and do more of that in the future.’
Chris: ‘Germany is so overwhelmingly kind to us. Everywhere we go is, really, but we have cultivated some extremely special relationships there.’
I often hear that physical products are still popular in the States (and in Germany). That is amazing! What is your opinion about it and view on it?
Doza: ‘Physical merch is what helps bands at our level the most. Streaming music gets us very little. It can be helpful in terms of exposure but when a fan buys merch they are investing directly into the band’s ability to tour and keep going. It is vitally important. If you love music, support them monetarily, it’s the best way to ensure you get more from the artists you love.’
Sean: ‘Yes, we are a band but more importantly, we are traveling t-shirt salesmen. It’s the only way we can tour and support the band. I do kinda wish we didn’t have to focus so much on it, because like music, art never gets the amount of money it should. Our graphic artist Chris Prince has been shelling out banger design after banger design for years, and we can’t thank him enough for all his hard work. It really does take a village! A village of people who are all broke. If you are reading this check out our webstore! We dropship overseas so you can get shirts for cheap.’
Chris: ‘I have an amazing 1960s console record player so I buy lots of records. I love the fact that vinyl never went away in underground heavy metal. One of my favorite things to do on tour is hang at the merch table and drink beers with all the nice people who spend their money on our merchandise. Telling jokes and listening to their stories while we sign their records and CDs is the highlight of the night for me.’
Anthony: ‘The fact that people are so excited about our merch is such a great feeling.’
What are the plans for the near future?
Doza: ‘This is my farewell to the band. It’s been an amazing 16 years that I will always cherish. I’m excited to see what they do next and I will continue to help out behind the scenes where I can!’
Sean: ‘We are going to work on getting our new drummer up to speed, play some local shows, and plan some big things on the horizon!’
Anthony: ‘I’d like to make a bigger push in the US, it’s a bit harder than Europe. Very excited to get started on the next batch of songs and see where they take us! I love playing gigs so hopefully many more gigs! We are opening for Hammerfall and Elvenking at the club attached to our practice space, that one is definitely circled on the calendar!’
Chris: ‘Well, we have a lot of work to do getting a new live show together. We will obviously be doing all the new songs but we are taking the opportunity to work in some rare gems we haven’t played in a long time. Me and Bill have also already begun writing songs for the next record!’
If there is something I forgot to cover or what you like to add, feel free to do it here…
Doza: ‘Ask them who their new drummer is, maybe they’ll reveal it here.’
Sean: ‘Haha I don’t know if we are ready for that yet! Thanks for the interview, it was fun chatting with you. Hope to see some of you at a show one day!’
Chris: ‘Thanks for the great questions its been fun answering them! Come to a show and hang out next time!’
Anthony: ‘Thank you Vera! Can’t wait to chat again, and see you soon!
Thank you so much guys for this wonderful journey through the Mega Colossus realms! It is fun reading. I wish you and Doza all the best with new adventures!
