ALBUM REVIEW: KOLLAPS – UNTIL THE DAY I DIE

From humble beginnings in Melbourne’s St Kilda to the (literal) greener pastures of Central Europe, Kollaps has never been a band to stagnate. Led by only constant member Wade Black, Black has done a fine job of shouldering Kollaps through his increasingly grand ambitions, taking whomever is fit for the cause with him.

Since the last album, Mechanical Christ, this iteration of Kollaps features two new members: Andrea Collaro on bass and coil, and Giorgio Salmoiraghi on percussion. With backgrounds as a technical death metal guitarist and as an engineer/technician respectively, these two Italians bring their own unique strengths and musicianship into the Kollaps fold.

There’s a small map of releases that have gotten us up to this point. Kollaps began life with the Heartworm EP, a post-punk indebted and industrial inspired four track release. They quickly swapped industrial ambiguity for a factory floor of noise with the debut album that followed, Sibling Lovers. Its driving mix of down tuned bass, repetitive mechanical rhythms, and under-production being a defining statement of post-industrialised intent. Then came Mechanical Christ, an album which marked a professional leap (including the signing with premier industrial label, Cold Spring) and produced a handful of fan favourite tracks for the band.

We’re now met with Until The Day I Die, an album which finds kinship with its predecessors through its continued tradition of sonic removal from them. Don’t get me wrong, this is unmistakably a Kollaps record. But, much like everything Kollaps has released, it marks a big step from where they left off. 

Across the 7 tracks and 34 minute runtime, the album scrapes itself through a wide array of industrialised sounds. There’s harshness, explosiveness, as well as moments of atmosphere and dead-eyed wallowing. Many tracks take ownership of these variations of sound, but are unified by an ever-present haze of static, and various clanks and noises (courtesy of the infamous coil and widening repertoire of gear). 

The album balances harrowing explosions with moments of anxious moderation, the latter being our introduction to the record. At roughly three minutes a piece, the two opening tracks “Relapse Theatre” and “D-IX” function mostly as threats of violence, as opposed to the attack itself. Layers of synth and noise are accompanied by samples, washed static vocals, and cardiac beats of thumping percussive elements. All of which congeal into a kind of surging atmospheric intensity not previously found from Kollaps on record.