Review: Collapse Under The Empire – Find A Place To Be Safe

It will be of little surprise that with a name like Collapse Under The Empire, this Hamburg duo are an instrumental post rock act. They even describe their album as “a soundtrack for the apocalypse without a happy end”. In truth, that’s a little deceptive as much of ‘Find A Place To Be Safe’ sounds triumphant and confident.

‘Captured Moments’ is a satisfying opener with guitar melodies meshed together loudly but without being over the top.  ‘Crawling’ finds even more space, at least intially, before exploding (possibly in the sky). Elsewhere, the title track treads the well-worn descriptions of sprawling and epic atmospheres and a couple of the later tracks have cinematic qualities but make the listener feel slightly empty afterwards. Their music is generally saved from cliché, though, thanks to some subtle ambient touches. To this end, complex electronica and time signatures are at the heart of album highlights ‘Angle Of Incidence’ and the relentless ‘Decay’.

It has to be said, Collapse Under The Empire notch up an almighty noise considering they are only a two-piece. Yet whilst they never come close to blazing a trail for a new generation of post rockers, they have produced an album which is consistently dramatic and stirring.

Web Sites:
Collapse Under The Empire Official Site
Collapse Under The Empire MySpace

Further Listening:
Explosions In The Sky, Sigur Ros