Band:	Kollapsed
Album:	An Altar In Mind
Style:	Atmospheric sludge metal
Release date:	March 25, 2023
A review by:	Netzach

01. Remnants
02. Ashes
03. Tracing Steps
04. A Prelude (Replacements)
05. With Eyes Wide Open
06. Red Sea: Karma

Kollapsed’s music takes cues from post-metal and atmospheric doom acts such as Isis and Cult Of Luna, topping off dirgy riffs with blackened screams, at times settling into plucked, moody patterns that take on an uneasy, hypnotic quality. Sounds good, right?

Kollapsed is a post-metal band from my hometown Linköping, and after releasing a couple of EPs almost a decade ago, they now return with their first full-length debut, An Altar In Mind. Best to get that pesky disclaimer out of the way already: I have shared a stage with the band a few years back when I played keyboards in Chaliced and I was at this album’s release gig, so now that everyone knows this, let’s get on with this still totally unbiased review, shall we?

“No remorse, the trees grow old
Reaching forever where men fought for gold”

“Remnants” opens up the album with a Salvation-era Cult Of Luna touch which goes through the motions of a mid-paced post-metal song that ends in a doomy tremolo escapade. It’s a good opener, and it’s worth to note that Kristoffer’s vocals border more on the blackened side than the hoarse post-hardcore rasp you’d expect from this style of music. I think it is an excellent touch that mixes up an otherwise potentially predictable style just enough to feel new. “Ashes” shows a somewhat different side of the band, still sounding a lot like Cult Of Luna but taking cues from atmospheric doom with its plucked guitars and apocalyptic riffs that towards the end just decide to go slower and slower until the tension can be cut with a moderately sharpened knife.

It is “Tracing Steps” that finally gives me goosebumps, however. When a song manages to sound like the missing link between two of my favourite bands, who am I to argue? Just before the 4-minute mark, the song devolves into a beautiful atmospheric passage where the backbeat ebb-and-flow swagger of the drums bring to mind Aaron Harris (Isis) while descending, sweeping guitars patterns bring the song back to its chorus. The next song is also interesting, sounding as if it was built completely around the drums as its main instrument, considering the presence the drums are given in the track and how everything from double-kick to that iconic Isis backbeat seems to drive the song forward.

At this point, it becomes evident that this is an album almost a decade in the making. Well, more or less. “With Eyes Wide Open” was released already back in 2015 and comparing it to songs like “Tracing Steps” makes me, well, not as much disappointed as hopeful for the future. There is some very nice tracklist trickery towards the end of the album as the final track devolves into a faux finale - only to come raging back against the listener all the much harder (which also gave me goosebumps - which is obviously a good thing).

An Altar In Mind is an ambitious and evocative piece of music that has been a long time in the making, and that at times sounds like a tribute band to more-known post-metal acts, although the vocals really do a lot to differentiate them from otherwise inevitable comparisons. Most of all, though, An Altar In Mind is a stripped-down yet varied piece of music that bears its influences on its sleeves and sounds like exactly what I generally love to listen to. I can’t help but wonder, of course, what’s in store for these guys next - more vocals experimentation, different tempos, more atmospheric parts, more doom parts…? An Altar In Mind is a great debut album, and the sky’s the limit.