The Great Collapse
The Great Collapse

And let's throw ourselves to the ground, please people, let’s taste the crumpled flavor of the earth, I’m talking about fresh mud or dry fine soil, fine until we emulate these Canadians who are very good at collapsing, more than anything they make great collapses...

“The Great Collapse” is the self-titled album of this very young band straight from Toronto. And indeed (sorry for the repetition of adverbs but I like them too much) listening to them, but what listening to them? Listening to them is really a collapse.

This 2009 micro potential presents itself as an “extreme progressive metal”... mind you, by “progressive” I mean with unusual structures and quite discordant elements, not eccentric virtuosity in the style of Dream Theater or Shadow Gallery... In fact, you can clearly see the influences of Opeth and Death, respectively for “extreme progressive” and for “transcendental technical,” in addition to probably many others like Meshuggah, Atheist, ... Only that these reinterpret it in a decidedly more accessible way, so to speak. I am not saying that the whole bundle has a bland, crude pace, otherwise I wouldn’t have mentioned progressive at all, but let’s put it this way: the listening is of a hostile pleasantness, it is fun, no doubt about it, but after a while you feel like taking off your spring cloak and putting back on the old heavy coat even though spring is well over! We are faced with fun little songs, initially exciting, but the latter quickly turns into a desire for something harder and roaring.

After this intro, it seems appropriate to start getting a bit serious, since

“o' my dear reader,

you will want to finish reading this blessed review”

(long live rhymes) Since you are almost halfway through, after all, the first sentence was and is a decoy for the fish, the most obvious ones.

The whole thing lasts almost ¾ of an hour, for a total of 11 songs, averaging 4 minutes per song, and here I encounter the first flaw that made me delay a second listen (because I will talk about the first one later)... that is guys, we're talking about extreme progressive metal (or progressive death metal, but I find it inappropriate) and who wouldn’t want to enjoy a well-made song of 10... 15 minutes, like Opeth, Dream Theater, Ihsahn, the old Katatonia and almost all the others who try to be more progressive than extreme did and do. But instead, I find myself with two handfuls of songs 3, 4, 5 minutes long. But despite my personal prejudice against small numbers, I settled in for a first listen... and guys, if it hadn’t been for the only woman in the group, I wouldn’t have listened to this great collapse even for 2012. And I found myself suddenly dazzled, overwhelmed, dodged, and irradiated by that mighty and sweet voice of Angela Wheeler, the group's singer. I am a radical cynic but let me say this, she has a happy voice.

And I found myself listening to this laborious work, and there are indeed many highs and lows.

There is little to say about the guitar: it's truly a spectacle, full of variety, bewildering rhythms, sprints, flashes, twilights, and waves, both those few clean ones and the numerous hard ones!

For the bass, I’m very sorry, but I don’t like it that much... that is, you can’t hear it at all. I understand that the "bass" is called "bass" because it is indeed "low," but here we have exceeded the threshold, darn it! Ultrasounds! And I am not a whale, and I hope dolphins do not invade my house (even if it’s in the mountains, but maybe earth dolphins exist) attracted by a love call.

The drums are typically death, I did not find vacant lakes of liquids, but what’s there is too common... I’m talking about water, here! At most sparkling water, with a bland 7.98 of PH! But the most aggressive thing is that we find it in liters! We could raise the entire African population... I hope I have been clear...

About the vocals, I already said my part, but only partly, because everything is managed by 2 voices: one female and one male. In my opinion, this dualism tries to escape the monotony of normal bands (not necessarily monotonous). An unusual dualism, composed of an enchanting powerful female and a male ultra-screamed scream. Yes, I am talking about a quite hostile scream, but do not cry, o’ reader; at first, the sound might seem inappropriate and silly, but after a while, you realize it is well done, of a certain level, quite refined (blessed metallic vocal cords). Moreover, you will soon notice that this dualism is a concatenation and detachment, and the merry-go-round seems to the listener a good and right thing, I guarantee it. The only thing that bothers me is the ratio between the parts, it seems like 50-50... I would have opted for 75 female and 25 male scream.

A track by track would be useless because I’ve already explained everything above, besides the fact that there are 11 and I don’t want to give my blessing to all the apostles... and beyond the fact that I have a hundred or so words left, and throwing them to explain the purpose of all this seems like the best thing to do.

So, I limit myself to making a “Trivia” section like those on “Wikipedia,” I feel like a multimedia encyclopedia too:

- “Birth” is the first and also a short instrumental intro;

- “Devolve” is the first single that can also be found on “iutub”;

- “Morning Mass Suicide” best represents the “The Great Collapse” element; if you can’t fall off your chair in the first 20 seconds, the lollipop is guaranteed;

- “Bloodline Memory” is probably the most death;

- In the first 5 seconds of “A Big Bright Tomorrow,” the voice was recorded when the singer had just woken up; (without source)

- “Wreckage” is probably the most progressive;

- “Sick, Cornered Animal” is the most elusive;

- “The Torture of Creation” is the most elusive, a duplicate, sorry;

Attached is the chorus of “The Eternal Pull.”

I hope the review was to your liking, and especially the album.

By LUGREZZO