Definitely one of the best oufits of 2001!!
mirko quaglio | Italy | 04/27/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Breach has finally closed the circle. after the noisy post-core of "it's me god" and the complex sonic architectures of "Venom", these five guys explore another unknown musical territory, where metal, hardcore, noise, post rock, punk can be put together to create something that can only be defined simply breach-sound. The feel of the entire album is dark, though some moments are filled with anger ("old ... player, murder kings and killer queens") and some other are more reflective and introspective (as in "big strong boss", "teeth out" and the marvellous title track), and this "two faces" of kollapse could be found in the fact that only half of the tracks are sung (well, the harsh vocals can't destroy the magic dream-like atmosphere of a piece like "seven"!!!), though the singer (Andre), when he screams, is the essential compound to some pieces: "mr marschall" without that oblique lyrics, probably it would not be so much terrificant!!! Well, Kollapse is a masterpiece and probably it is the record which will give more commercial response to the band, but perheps it's not as fascinating as it was Venom: that record was more "physical", more terrificant and - not much surpringsly - heavier than Kollapse...it seems that Breach here have losen a few of their darker intentions in order to follow the way toward experimentation...it would be a problem for next Breach's album but by now the result is simply magnificent and I'm glad for this!"
A high water mark for Hardcore
D. Hamilton-Smith | Merrye Olde Engelond | 04/09/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Breach were an underrated, forward thinking band who pre-dated and helped to shape the sound of the European wing of what people now call "post-metal". It's a silly term, seeing as most of its principal exponents actually began as hardcore bands. But "post-hardcore" apparently was already taken. Personally I go for "progressive hardcore" where I can, but enough banter - 'Kollapse' is one of the finest albums I've ever heard, heavy or otherwise.
By the time they released this, their final album, Breach seem to have mastered their own dynamic range beyond the standards of previous works (which were all very good, but the listener's experience was limited to that of being hit in the face by a sledgehammer covered in caustic acid). The drumming is particularly good - on several tracks the tight hi-hats and tribal toms raise the bar to new levels of sophistication in the genre. Good rhythmic touches are often the hooks that sink deepest into the listener and Breach know it. The opener 'Big Strong Boss'* is exemplary of this - an immediately memorable drum beat followed by a controlled release of twin guitars, leading each other through intelligently structured quiet sections, loud sections, alternating between harmonic and discordant lead lines that hang over the ends of bars and drop down into choppy riffs before climbing again. Three or four tracks are tightly constructed in this way; exhaustive, involving and never predictable.
Even more remarkable is how this stream-of-consciousness, progressive approach is applied to the more vicious hardcore-inclined tunes. '...Player', 'Murder Kings...' and 'Lost Crew' are as intense as anything from their older albums but so much more tightly-wound and slick, they become jaw-dropping in parts.
In their native Scandinavia, Breach are afforded the high regard they deserve, and in a fair world they would be spoken of in the same breath as Converge, Botch and Cave In. Their legacy is a standard bearer of how far hardcore-based music can go, and 'Kollapse' is itself a model of how brute force, emotional resonance, experimentation and technical chops can be combined to virtual perfection.
(*Since first posting this review, I have discovered that 'Big Strong Boss' is an explicit reference to a Swans track of the same name. I like how Breach do this - release a totally slaying, groundbreaking record containing a song with the EXACT same name as another by a different totally slaying, groundbreaking band. On their previous album 'Venom', they had a song just called 'Black Sabbath'!)"
Track Listings (11) - Disc #1