KOLLAPS TRADIXIONALES

I just submitted my review of their most recent album when I noticed this album gets weaker reviews than most of their other albums. In a way I can understand - this one takes longer for its merits to become clear and it is less likely to grab reviewers on first listen. However, after having listened to this album for six years now, I think this is up there with their best albums. Probably the reason for the lower scores is Efrim's singing is a bit more tortured than usual on this one, and his singing is right up from on the long opening piece "There is a Light". I have to admit not being as keen on this song when I first heard it, but it has really grown on me, and is today one of my favourite songs of theirs. There is a very similar feel to the long closer, "Piphany Rambler", which has Efrim singing (rambling indeed) all over this, with much of the same feel as "There is a Light". This one probably takes even longer to warm up to, but again, after first being a bit turned off by it, I (now) really like it. In the middle are some more great pieces. "I Built Myself a Metal Bird" is distorted hard-driving progressive punk (in fact, the tune is in 7/8 time!), but what I find particularly great about the middle part of this album is that the band is here improvising at length. "I Fed my Metal Bird the Wings of Other Metal Birds" is the improvised extension of the first Metal Bird track. Similarly the two Kollaps Tradixionales pieces include improvisation, and so while these are (for me) the weaker tracks on the album, they are still quite good and indeed essential to the listening experience of the album. I like this album a lot more than 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons, which is less well put together and less musical over all. I also like it better than Horses in the Sky, which has some great songs but for me is uneven. Similar to their most recent album (which I just reviewed), I find Kollaps to be consistently good all the way through.

Some albums are easy to 'get' on first or second listen. Some albums rise quickly at first, but then fall just as quickly after a few listens. This one started lower but kept rising, and only started to plateau after around 20 listens. Even though it is fairly long, I now always listen to this one all the way through - once it is on, I am drawn to hear it out. While most listeners will probably prefer their most recent album over this one on first listen (so, you should get that one first), I actually rate this one a tiny bit higher (after many years). How much you eventually like the album will depend on how much the opening and closing tracks grow on you. But I think it is well worth the time-effort. I give this 8.7 out of 10 on my 10-point scale, which also translates to high 4 PA stars.

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