Debut album “Phantom Centre” out now from Kollaps\e
Like some well crafted metal noise ? If you like doom / post-metal and bands like Cult of Luna, Elder, and the likes of Møl, then we’ve got something you might be very interested in.
Kollaps\e have released their storming 7 track debut album “Phantom Centre” on Trepanation Recordings, Evil Noise Recordings and Clouded Mind Records. It’s out now and available on all streaming platforms, having previously released two singles and “The Pandemic Sessions” EP.
Kollaps\e are a post-metal/sludge band from Helsingborg, a coastal city on the southern edge of Sweden and the closest point to Denmark across the Öresund. The band is a four-piece of Daniel Wallenborg (guitar & vocals), Peter Walefors (guitar), Dennis Åkesson (bass) and Johannes Landgren (drums).
The album starts with the track Era. A great opener, it starts so quietly with atmospheric electronic tones and noises, for about the first minute, then Daniel’s raw, gravel-like vocals kick in, with powerful riffs and thunderous bass. It’s powerful and yet detailed, and has an ambient feel to it, hence my comparisons to the likes of Elder.
We head into Beautiful Desolate which opens with a simple bass line before a quick double tap of the toms announce the rest of the band in a chorus of noise. It’s an interesting track, the textures are somehow both raw and visceralics, and hyet at the same time delicate and stunningly beautiful.
Up next we have, perhaps my favourite track on the album Uhtceare. From what I could find out Uhtceare is an old word translated as “sorrow before dawn”. In effect when you lie awake in the darkness and worry. It’s introduction is delightful, slow and mellow and intricate, almost in the notes, conveying the sense of thinking, before the track wakes and delivers an incredibly powerful bassline dominating the soundtrack, which creates the sense of fear / worry. An instrumental number, it’s one of those that draws an incredibly expressive image in your mind. Top stuff !
Anaemia has a great intro, reminiscent of a horror-punk track creating a creepy feel, which is followed by Bränt Barn Skyr Elden. The title is a proverb which translates as “burnt child shuns fire”, meaning once bitten, twice shy – as a burnt child learns to dread the fire. Another expressive and atmospheric introduction gives way to a real hardcore classic sound. The guitar playing on this one is exceptional, while the bass & drums create a driving force, one you just can’t help nodding along to.
Radiant//Static is full on post-metal, but has a crisp, clean tone to it, before we come to the final track Murrain, kicking off with bass and drum creating a anthemic beat, before the raw fuzzy guitars and guttural vocals break in. The word means a plague or an epidemic, and this one is infectious, I couldn’t get enough of it. It’s aggressive, intense and invades every inch of your senses, and brings the album to a climactic end as the feedback fades away into blissful silence.
I’ve had a blast over the last few days with this album from Kollaps\e. Like most hardcore metal, it’s raw and brutal as hell, but it has an extra something to it that makes it standout. It has that doom (Elder) feel and grabs from shoegaze (Møl) and combines it all wonderfully.
A really great album, and well worth a 9/10 from LiveWire Music. Check it out !
Tracklist
Era
Beautiful Desolate
Uhtceare
Anaemia
Bränt Barn Skyr Elden
Radiant//Statix
Murrain
