COLLAPSAR

Frantic garage-tech from the Louisiana trio, here their second go at the mathcore they cultivated on the debut but more brutally heavy, and more progressive, as on nine-minute 'Axiomatic Fragment', a lurching web of desperately fabricated rhythms and lines dirty as a wino's balls but played with utter precision. Early Metallica may spring to mind but further comparisons are useless, and they sound little like Dysrhythmia, Oxes, F*cking Champs or the other acts they're lumped in with. Sheppert, Judice and Harris are originals in a huge field of unique bands, and totally serious about what they're doing. Twisting and gnarled is 'The Great Caldera' with hot group dynamics (think Sabbath 1972 or so), and the warbling hum of Stephen Sheppert's synth opens huge 'Spooky Action at a Distance'. Mean riffage in 'He's Got an Axe!', gurgling, gasping for breath, drowning in its own thick arterial blood with a soft refrain before the deathblow, 'Drilling Holes Through Space' is aptly named, and massive nineteen-minute 'The Forever War' carries the full weight of this band's physical power and emotional transference as it takes us through an epic battle. Great job, fellas.

Integers is the second studio album from American act Collapsar. The Album was released in 2007.

The music on Integers is a very complex mix of instrumental rock and metal. There are lots of tempo and time signature changes in every song. The music is very structured with no place for improvisation. There are six songs on the album. The songs are generally very long with the 18:52 long The Forever War being the longest and Spooky Action At A Distance with its 11:26 minutes the second longest track here. The music is powerful and most of the time played in a pretty fast pace.

The musicianship is the biggest treat on the album. These musicians are technically very acomplished. It´s hard not to be impressed with the band when they are this capable.

The production is one of those dry modern productions that I seldom enjoy. Unfortunately it´s the same here on Integers.

Let me state right away that I don´t enjoy this music much. I think it lacks hooks and that the songs are too close to each other in sound and style. Many of the songs overstay their welcome by several minutes and that´s a big problem too. I can´t give Integers less than 3 stars though as the technical level is extremely high and I have to admit I do enjoy some parts of the music. This is musicians music though and the ordinary non-musician listener will probably be annoyed after a couple of minutes.

the new album, Integers seems to have mellowed a little bit in comparison to the debut. What I mean is that the band has chosen to focus more on long-form songs (the album is very long with few tracks); meaning they jam out some numbers for near the ten minute mark. It seems they have also toned the tech down a notch which is mildly disappointing. It seems as if they were listening to a lot of "hypno-metal" and the result is a hypnotic journey that subsequently keeps one stimulated, while also relaxed- due to the nature of the song structures. I really wish they would play in a more "free" compositional structure (personally), but really the songs are decent either way. For those into instrumental metal, this is right up your alley, complex enough to garner your attention, with decent chops on display but no real "shred" to be found; whereas the first release had a little more excitement to offer by way of the noodling. Maybe I was having an off day, and should allow this to play a few times......but in a certain regard this reminds me of a lot of 'post-metal' bands (not that this is a bad thing) in that the songwriting is pretty mathematic and droning in a certain way. good stuff either way. When I need a metal fix with no annoying vocals, I will reach for this, as the subgenre of instru-metal is really lowly populated. 3.75 overall

Terrific tech-metal group sporting a snazzy layered guitar sound and power rhythms, mathematic and messy at the same time with hints of Voivod, Crimson and even early Rush. No singing and few solos to get in the way of the fun, filled with complexities easily missed, wild stops and starts, and an intense, almost anal infatuation with structure that changes too often to bore. 'Death's Other Dominion' is fine progmetal that features flurries of guitar harmonies, forceful campaigns and ringing melodies. The pace increases on 'Uno', 'Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla' is stormy and insistent, the aggressive 'Pray to Others' with light-to-heavy dynamics, and 'King Kong Died For Your Sins' is musical and rather sophisticated despite the silly name. 'Sleep Robot' video games its way into the 9-minute 'Opus' with its obsessed calculus-core and 'Robot Wins' ends the record in industrial fashion.

These guys could open for anyone from Metallica to King Crimson and please both crowds immensely. Arithmetal at its most annoying and astounding, and a great band.