Review Summary: This is a bit of an experimental album combining electronic, power metal, and prog metal influences.
Rust Belt Gothic (RBG) is the project successor of the progressive power metal band Abodean Skye, where multi-instrumentalist and audio engineer Bogdan Vera, and vocalist Will Shaw combine efforts to bring us Collapsar. This album presents an unusual combination of djenty rhythm patterns, classical prog metal guitars, power metal flavored vocals, and other electronic influences. It is definitely not something you hear every day, but merely having these traits isn’t enough to give the album the quality and longevity it needs to stand tall amongst the bunch.
In general, the impression I got from my listening experience of Collapsar was generally pleasant and inoffensive for the album’s first few plays. I kept listening with the gut feeling that there may be some hidden potential in the album that I had not picked up on yet. At that point, it was clear that the minds behind this project have a lot of interesting musical ideas that do an adequate job, at least by themselves. However, after getting past the introductory phase of the listening experience it seemed more clear to me that the band is still noticeably inexperienced in combining these ideas into a compact, thoroughly enjoyable album. A lot of the composition really started to feel incomplete, both in its melody and complexity. And that this hidden potential I once saw in Collapsar, now seemed to be a gaping hole in what it could have been.
What I found from doing some research about RBG on Reddit is the following: “The title Collapsar is another term for a collapsed star, suggesting the feeling of imploding both on a personal, global and metaphysical level – a fitting name for an album released in 2021.” Not that I’m really one who can talk smack, but this description is similar to how I feel about the album. A hole collapsed by the weight of its potential.
Throughout Collapsar, there are glimpses of intriguing but half-baked ideas. Like I mentioned previously, there is a lot of dead space. The compositions are light and airy and the instrumentation is generally very thin. If this was a conscious decision on the songwriter’s part then he should know this can work but only if either the riffs and melodies are good enough to be able to stand alone. I have reviewed one band recently, Wine Guardian that exemplifies this description. However, sad to say that RBG does not. Another problem that probably overlaps a bit with what was previously mentioned is that Collapsar feels too long and overstays its welcome. There does not seem to be enough interesting material to drag it on for 40 minutes, had the album taken more time to develop its melodies and compositional complexity this might be a different story.
There are a variety of small hints of influences from other prog metal bands, but naming them would become a bit pedantic. But just to mention a couple, I’m sure someone could spot a bit of Dream Theater in the guitars of the opening track, and some BTBAM influence during the beginning of “Black Star Collapsing”.
It’s a difficult task for someone to write and perform every instrument on a metal album (especially in progressive metal), which makes it that much harder for Bogdan Vera to do everything aside from the vocals. Usually, when I see this, it is a good guitarist that under-utilizes the bass and doesn’t know how to play the drums. And this trend is not too far from the case here. Aside from the climax of “Cycles in Time” and “Unfamiliar” the drums on this album are very dull. And the bass usually does not stray from replicating the main guitar. This is why RBG would benefit greatly from the combined skill of an entire band instead of one guy trying to do almost every instrument.
Now I’m going to touch on what the band did well. Will Shaw’s vocal performance is pretty good. He has experience from his performances on Ayreon‘s Transitus and The Source, and he seems to be a natural at epic power metal vocals. This is why a highlight is the song “To The Barricades” as it gives Will Shaw’s vocal range the spotlight with an epic chorus. Another song highlight is the instrumental track “Cycles in Time”, it seems to be an example of what Bogdan Vera can do when his ideas are successfully fleshed out. It is additionally relieving to say that the mixing of the instruments and overall production of Collapsar are both pretty well done.
Djent, electronic, prog metal, power metal, what RBG presents show that they are a jack of all trades, master of none. I had originally given this album a fairly higher score but because of its simplicity and under-composed compositions, it seems to have a short listening lifespan. Usually what happens is albums that are built for longevity only get better with repeated listens, but this takes experience in music creation, and I don’t think RBG is quite there yet.
Attribution: https://theprogressivesubway.com/2021/07/15/review-rust-belt-gothic-collapsar/
