His Statue Falls

Collisions

Written by: BL on 24/08/2010 23:15:55

This came out early in the year and I had unfortunately neglected to review it up until now. For those who may be somewhat disheartened by how all the American attempts at popularising the Synth Hardcore/Screamo genre all seem to be so similar (Asking Alexandria may be British but for all intended purposes they may as well be American), and all too focused on packing as many breakdowns as possible and the cheesiest (and mostly rubbish) autotuned clean vocals may be interested to hear about this German band His Statue Falls. Because you see Collisions is a debut album where the focus is on elevating the synths to centre stage - just like genre front runners Enter Shikari have done. The record is packed with infectious synth melodies taken straight from Euro Dance and Trance in particular.

This is made abundantly clear by most of the songs starting with gorgeously bright and addictive synth melodies. "Let's Get Crackin'" might just be a breakdown song, but with the excellent synth it really gets you in the right mood for the rest of the album. And the way most of the songs are structured with the synths taking such a forefront, it's difficult to not see the Enter Shikari influences pop up constantly - certainly taking that route rather than the more obnoxious Attack Attack! one. There's plenty of more hardcore sections and screaming which are brought in quite smoothly despite screaming vocalist Alex not being the most talented screamer you'll ever hear. Clean vocals from guitarist Dennis are catchy and quite polished (without sounding modified heavily) with him singing big choruses on the likes of "Jasmin W. Knows How To Mosh" that also features a great mid section synth line, the ridiculously bouncey and happy dance party sounding (in a good way) "Give It Up! Give It Up!", "Sooner If You Let Me", "If Shakespeare Had A Myspace Profile" and the excellent but rather annoyingly named penultimate track "Does Any Of You Guys Know..." (it's a really long title).

Ofcourse with such great emphasis on synths (there being no less than two completely synth filled interlude tracks) and sing-a-long choruses, the other instruments take a mostly backseat approach. The guitars rarely get too explorative or inventive save for the odd little lead melody here and there (most of which is in "Sooner If You Let Me") or the occasional horror chord that pops in (thankfully minimal in use) and mostly stick to providing a rhythm backing along with the solid but totally unspectacular drum and bass guitar parts (though in some ways you don't really come in expecting them usually). Breakdowns aren't actually that frequent and never try to be too dissonant, too simple and stupid or heavy for the sake of heavy which in this genre is a godsend because when you have that heavy guitar and synth combo pulled off well, it's just such a refreshing sound.

It did take me some time to really enjoy the album on the level I do now, mostly because the guitars are just so simplistic and unambitious and the songs while all enjoyable in a single run, share the same approaches more or less so when you listen to the songs back to back then end up sounding quite alike at first. Saying that though the euro dance synths are so much fun in return when you really get into them, and are arguably some of the best both in sound and use I've heard since Enter Shikari's "Mothership" or "Anything Can Happen...". If you enjoy Shikari, or like the sound of everything I've described then check this album out. It's a quality blast for what it is.

Download: Give It Up! Give It Up!, Sooner If You Let Me, Does Any Of You Guys Know Why For God's Sake Every Band On Earth Gotta Have Long Song Titles
For the fans of: Enter Shikari, Abandon All Ships!, Euro Dance music
Listen: Myspace

Release date 26.02.2010
Redfield Records

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