Montreal’s Collapsed and Linköping’s Adrestia are both bands who forge a brutal fusion of galloping d-beat crust punk with early 1990s’ death metal influences and they have come together for a new split full-length, Antitheism.
‘Sounds of sirens, The die is cast, New blood is shed, By ghosts from the past’ (The Ghosts Of Mariupol, Adrestia)
Side A is in the hands of Adrestia. This is their sixth full-length / split album since their 2016 debut, The Art Of Modern Warfare, with many of their earlier releases having focused on highlighting the Kurdish pursuit of independence in Rojava. There is an avowedly metallic edge to their crust onslaught. The harsh rasping vocals, darkly bleak melodies, and fierce delivery conjure spectres of Extreme Aggression-era Kreator, not least on the blistering opener The Ghosts Of Mariupol, which focuses on the horrors of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The primary lyrical concerns of the balance of their tracks, such as the stomping Nail In The Coffin and the slab-like God Should Pray For Your Forgiveness, are the threats from religious fundamentalism and the more insidious day-to-today repressions that can be inflicted by religious institutions.
‘Kept in crates and cages, A life born to be killed, Locked behind closed doors, Where they hide all the shame’ (Asunder, Collapsed)
The flipside sees Collapsed take centre stage, with this the follow-up to their 2020 self-debut full-length. The band blend doom infused death metal rhythm guitars and growled, guttural vocals with a more d-beat accented rhythm section and flourishes of neo-crust melodicism, as perfectly captured by the ferocious opener Global Collapse, with its echoes of Spiritual Healing-era Death, and the melancholy riven Inherent Distrust. Lyrically, the band explore themes of environmental catastrophe (Global Collapse), animal rights (Asunder), and social atomisation (Controlled Extinction). Meanwhile, Blood On The Roots is a tribute to American songwriter Abel Meeropol and his renowned poem against racial injustice, Strange Fruit (1937), that was later set to music by Meeropol and recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939.
