Collapsus may not be an established household name, especially on these shores, but it may surprise many that they have been in existence since the late 90’s. they released two demos in the 2000’s and have now launched an attack with ‘Shockwaves Of Decline’, a neat little four track E.P clocking in at over thirty minutes.
Each track is constructed with brutality and melody. The vocals from Samuel Leclercq are vicious and full of hatred and anguish. Phillippe Menard obliterates his drum kit throughout, stalking the tracks with power and precision resembling that of an AK-47.
The subject surrounding the four songs on this release is loss and fatality, and this is presented with a combination of melodic power and aggressiveness. Sylvain Mallet and Frank Poulet orchestrate the six strings while the whole release is bolstered with absolute crunching and battery on the four strings from Nicolas. The strings work in complete harmony, intertwining with the vocals and drums as comfortably and natural as rock and roll or rhythm and blues.
The E.P pretty much sits as a game of two halves. The first two tracks clock in at just over six minutes each, with the final two tracks both sitting at the post ten-minute mark. My personal highlight, ‘A Time To Pass Away’, is pounding and meaty with the vocals containing a rawer edge to the make-up than the rest. The backdrop is slightly more technical than the others in the release and the controlled and measured vocal deliverance all constitute to making the track a standout on the release.
The origins of ‘Collapsus’, lying deep in the Paris suburbs, is very evident from the Digi pack that the E.P comes housed in, with all the literature being scribed in the bands native tongue which makes the reading of the notes somewhat challenging, unless of course you are fluent in French.
This is a neat little slab of death metal, overflowing with obvious influences from the likes of Death, Dissection and Carcass, and if you are after a new direction to your death metal collection, be sure to grab yourself this package at some point.
(7/10 Phil Pountney)
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