Posted on: March 26, 2009 Posted by: anfnewsacct Comments: 0

Hey, I was really wondering where Treble Charger went, and in Big Collapse, the punk/rock mix really works to the degree that the aforementioned band had. A super-group consisting of members from bands I’ve never heard before (Shift, Burn, Absolution, Die 116), Big Collapse creates their own brand of punk-influenced rock that is incredibly easy to bop around to. “Deliver Me” is the perfect example of what should be on new-rock stations, with a very rich set of vocals in Josh’s heading up an experimental formation of guitar lines. “Pull Out the Guts” continued this tendency to have an incredibly large sound out of a simple four piece band exploiting some of the same power chords that have been used for decades. There is truly no rest for the wicked, as Big Collapse creates an epic in the title track, moving ever-so-cleanly to the Richie Sambora-influenced “Private War”.

“Private War” enlightens the listening audience to the bluesier, more riff-heavy version of Big Collapse. Including a very-distortion laced guitar, “Private War” has the bridge drop half the band; the guitars and drums do a call and response that leads into a feel of a Les Claypool bass solo. “Automatic” has a very chunky bass line that threads itself through the disc along with the mammoth drumming by Kyle and the supersonic guitars of Matt and Josh. Moving to a Tom Morello-styled guitar for “Colossal”, Big Collapse continues the chugging along of the bass into a break-neck breakdown

Overall, Big Collapse is that sort of band that has all the strengths of popular rock radio without falling into the pitfalls of similar song structure or continually pandering to the listening audience with the same lyrical content. In fact, the only discernible weakness with Big Collapse is the relative sameness of Josh’s vocals. This problem is further decreased in importance when one factors in the other instruments of the act provide such a lush and varying soundscape for the vocals. With this richness, the difference in range and pitch that Josh works with is amplified to a much higher level than it would be if a pack of lesser musicians were accompanying em. Along with Ben Moore’s excellent production, Prototype is anything but what its name suggests – this is a mature band that has put out an utterly mature record, ready for consumption by the masses.

Rating : 7.8/10

Top Tracks : Prototype, Private War

Big Collapse – Prototype / 2003 The Militia Group / 10 Tracks / http://www.bigcollapse.com / http://www.themilitiagroup.com / Reviewed 15 October 2003 / Released 07 October 2003

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