by Jonathan Mottola (@screamo_enjoyer)
Pennsylvania’s Collapsed Skull is a new three-piece powerviolence band featuring members of Full of Hell. Their sound on the jaw-dropping debut EP Eternity Maze is a sort of genre-salad that mashes together powerviolence, hardcore, grindcore, beatdown, death metal, and harsh noise all broken up by hip-hop, spoken word, and acoustic guitar samples.
With the screeching and sputtering noise elements, the dynamic nature of the vocals, ranging from breathy barks to snarls and vomited shrieks, and the pummeling rhythm section, this twelve minute long debut EP is brutal and relentlessly chaotic, with not a single second of runtime wasted or dull. Even the ambience and sample work is deliberate and purposeful, the only sort of relief that the recording offers. Think of them as a sort of palette cleanser between absolutely devastating tracks, or even as a generously provided moment of reflection. The listener is going to be grateful for them, because even though most of the songs are only around a minute long, each one is an absolute endurance test.
Harsh noise in heavy music, especially grindcore, is something that we have seen a lot of within the past few years, with bands like Pig Destroyer, The Locust, and of course, Full of Hell incorporating noise boards and feedback into their sound. However, Eternity Maze is a stand-out example, as it is utilized masterfully and cohesively, with attention to ambience and precision and yet present enough in the mix and dynamic enough in sound to stand alone as a highlight in this recording. Additionally, the production on the noise is crisp and sharp in sound, almost digital, which is expected from a project including vocalist and harsh-noise veteran Dylan Walker’s work in Full of Hell and more recent noise project, Sore Dream.
Songs like the title track “Eternity Maze” showcase the talent of Collapsed Skull’s bass player, with basslines that feel dirty, fuzzy, menacing and yet dynamic enough in sound and style to compensate for there being no guitar player on this release (which doesn’t seem to be necessary given the fact that the riffs on this thing are enormous). In fact, the bass-only approach works beautifully, as there is a clear distinction between the shrill, tinnitus-inducing screeching of the noisy feedback and synthesizers and the forward-driving low end of the bass. Additionally, the drum work on this release is impossibly fast and incredibly brutal, with creative rhythms and a clear punk-influence. Between the riffs and the alternating blast beats and drum fills, the rhythm section and entire instrumental ensemble, consisting of Brandon Brown and Jordan Skipper, is incredibly talented and impressively tight on this recording.
While the lyrics are difficult to make out upon first listen, which is common within music as brutal as this, there is something to be said about the lyrical work and poetry behind Eternity Maze. Poetry it is, in the sense that the lyrics say so much in meaning in such a short timeframe and with such precision. Throughout the twelve minutes of music, the lyrics range from brutality and violence to powerful political statements, driven by rage and holding up a mirror to a grim society. The deliberately chosen wording is vicious, direct, and confrontational, which is perfectly fitting for such a gruesome sound. While the music is ferocious and violent, the lyrics focus on a disgust with others, a disgust with misuse of power, and most importantly, a disgust with injustice.
In short, the name and the artwork on Eternity Maze won’t even begin to prepare the unsuspecting listener for the absolutely crushing and violent nature of this music. This is the sort of active and imaginative record that hardcore and powerviolence desperately needed, and we as listeners can only hope for more.