Danish post-metal/sludge experimentalists, Kollapse, released their debut album, Angst, in 2017 and retreated into isolation long before Covid-19 came along. Now reduced from five in number to a power trio, the band’s heavy noise assault is as fierce as ever and just as emotive. If Isis liked to consider themselves the ‘thinking man’s metal’, Kollapse might take the award for the ‘pondering man’s metal.’ They’re back with Sult and ready to weigh your feet down with blocks of concrete to test your survival instincts and ask how much longer you can engage with the absurdity of life.
It would be an injustice to Kollapse if we use the loose definition that post-metal is a hardcore interpretation of Celtic Frost and sludge is a hardcore take on Black Sabbath. The Danes refuse to fit into either camp and do their best to take the ritualistic drum patterns of Joy Division and coldness of Swans with the crushing roar of Neurosis as their foundations. ‘Drift’ is a brewing tremor of grinding bass and dense guitars with a surprise female soliloquy in the middle eight that promises to hypnotise you like Tara Vanflower from Lycia. As an opener, it sets the oppressive mood. The world of Kollapse is an existence that knows the inevitability of misery and despair, but it’s a grief that prefers to suffer alone rather than cry for help. ‘Knæler’ will remind you of the latest album from Sarin with its angular rhythms and palm-muted tension. Who knows what the lyrics are about or what the screams mean in a cerebral sense? The whole point of Kollapse and the post-metal genre is to convey an existential struggle built only for you, like the man in Kafka’s parable in The Trial who asks to be admitted to the law with the permission of a gatekeeper only to realise after decades of waiting that the gate exists for him and nobody else and will never let him through.
It’s clear the band also spent the last four years listening to the noise rock of Sonic Youth and Shellac while regrouping as a trio. ‘Drukner’ is a slower number with intricate bass and repetitive chord-picking, like ‘The Promise’ by The Cure, before they step on the distortion pedal and mix doom vibrato notes with chugging bass lines. One thing you can always admire about this type of music is the emphasis on achieving a good mix and letting the instruments navigate their way without the need for any digital wizardry in the control room. The volume levels are louder than a bullet train on ‘Libido’, even posing the question what Schammasch would sound like if they embraced a Cult of Luna direction. And if you want a post-black metal innovation, watch how they let the bass play the tremolo patterns while the guitars concentrate on producing dense atmospheric melodies.
Kollapse produce the sound of a bear trap locking against your ankle. You scream at the top of your lungs, but you told nobody about your trek and no human beings are around for miles. Only the echoes of your agonising screams keep you company and maintain your sanity. Why do you cling to life when you know the wound will become infected by the time someone finds you?
Sult is an album that speaks to you in a certain mood and will be dangerous in happier times. They keep to the path set out by Neurosis in 1992 but add their own touches of introspection and nihilism. It’s a journey that the coward in you wants to avoid but cannot. Be brave and face your demons.
JVB
Verdict
Release Date: 25/06/2021
Record Label: Fysisk Format
Standout tracks: Drift, Drukner, Libido
Suggested Further Listening: Sarin – You Can’t Go Back (2021), Cult of Luna – Salvation (2004), Triptykon – Melana Chasmata (2014)