With intense beats heavily rooted in alternative dance and guitar riffs chunky enough to satisfy most rock fans, Collisions are taking no prisoners. Having landed support slots on tours with UK crossover heroes Senser and US rap/metallers Hed(pe), the Brighton based quartet have already built a live following. This debut EP – although a far too brief snapshot of a very talented bunch – captures their barely containable energy levels with often uncompromising results.
As the intro of the opening track ‘Believe In This’ emerges from the speakers and the electronic sounds clash with the atmospheric wordless voice, it’s hard not to instantly think of Newport’s finest ragga-metal merchants Skindred (a band with whom Collisions gained early, favourable comparisons). As the meaty riff kicks in, Collisions attack most of the next couple of minutes at full pelt: that riff sounds huge and awesome and the electronic beats suggest an equal love of Pendulum, while the vocal – unashamedly English (and none the worse for that) – is loaded with plenty of shouty charm.
While the other three tracks are in a very similar vein, ‘Fire Fire’ ups the ante, and the band’s mix of metal, dance and industrial edginess sounds ever more intense. While the dance elements bring most of the energy here, the enormous – and hugely downtuned riff – carries nearly all of the musical weight, sounding not unlike something from Skindred’s 2011 opus ‘Union Black’ played with maximum force. Likewise, ‘Push’ really pumps up the listener with its hefty beats while simultaneously pummelling you with some superb sledgehammer riffing. The ferocity in the performances really highlights how pumped Collisions are musically; after listening, you should feel hugely pumped too.
Perhaps the weakest of the four tracks here (and, in this sense, weakest is very much a relative term) ‘Chasing Forms’ isn’t quite as instant. This is largely due to the slower intro combining clanky beats, clean guitar chords and electronic vibes. The vocal is not quite as insistent either, with the rappy style recalling the male vocals from Sonic Boom Six, another cult UK genre-bending outfit. By the time things slot together – just before the halfway mark – Collisions’ usual aggression takes over. After spending a great amount of time with this EP, ‘Chasing Forms’ works its magic eventually, but never quite reaches the all-round brilliance of ‘Believe In This’ or ‘Push’.
While Collisions’ literal collision of genres sounds awesome, there is not always a huge variety in the end results. That really doesn’t matter, though, since their main objective is to get you either dancing like a mad thing or going headfirst into the pit. In that respect, ‘Believe In This’ is a resounding success.
May/July 2012