Kollaps — Until The Day I Die
[Cold Spring — 2022]★★★★★
Reviewed 27 October 2022by Paul Casey
This Spring saw the release of the third album from Kollaps, Until The Day I Die. This Australian, heavy industrial project hasn't lost a step since 2019's Mechanical Christ, and continues to smash, hammer, and crush forth with crispy, screeching, machine-death ecstasy. Even with an entirely different approach to the album construction, Kollaps gives an eager audience another slice of pounding, metallic collision.
Until The Day I Die may start with a warble, but it builds consistently and crushingly, giving industrial fans an excellently ear bending treat. "Relapse Theatre" opens this latest LP by setting the grim, isolated tone, allowing distant, distorted vocals and light pieces of feedback and screech to dance on the thick, stage setting synth notes. Combining the two directions that Until will take, this opener is an excellent view at the next six tracks and the progression of Kollaps as a unit. This combination of low, distant doom and in your face abrasiveness works to spread the listener's awareness to distant corners and leave them open to shifts in tone, instead of a predictable, one note approach. To that, the central song in the line up, "Hate Is Forever," takes all these assets, cranks them up to 11, and puts forth a harsh, industrial assault that would get any fan's fist in the air.
While many of the sounds on Until are in the traditional industrial toolbox, Kollaps utilizes them to a degree where they manage to feel both fresh and comfortable. The altered pacing of the tracks and their arrangement in the LP itself direct the listener in a way that is like a brand new story - exciting and with an eagerness to see what's around the next corner. Until The Day I Die is also another notch in mastering legend James Plotkin's bedpost, so one knows that this album is tweaked and peaked into perfect position for an awesome auditory experience