POLARS COLLIDE — Grotesque (review)

POLARS COLLIDE — Grotesque album cover Album · 2021 · Technical Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"Grotesque" is the debut full-length studio album by Danish, Aarhus based metal act Polars Collide. The album was independently released in July 2021. Polars Collide formed in 2017 and released the "One to Rise" EP later that same year. Leading up to the release of "Grotesque", the band released a couple of digital singles featuring tracks from the album.

Stylistically the material on "Grotesque" is groove oriented death/thrash featuring chugging angular riffs and heavy beats. Sometimes the music touches death metal territory with blast beats, tremolo riffs, and growling vocals, but if I have to mention a reference it would be a more simple and less chaotic Meshuggah (and maybe even a little Lamb of God). Polars Collide are not Meshuggah clones though, and they bring a lot of other things to the table in addition to that influence. The heavy groovy riffs and rhythms are central to the band´s sound, as well as the well performed aggressive and raw semi-growling vocals by lead vocalist Martin Borre. The lead guitar work is quite intricate and the atmospheric clean guitar sections provide the music with variation and a dark alien atmosphere.

The tracks are generally pretty long and the song structures are unconventional and at times even progressive. The two closing tracks which are the title track and "Cancer" are both over 10 minutes long and features quite a few different sections and songwriting ideas (the opening minutes of "Cancer" reminds me a lot of the most mellow Opeth songs from around the turn of the millenium). So describing the music above as simple is only in reference to the technical frenzy of Meshuggah. This is not simple music and it´s quite technical in its own right. Polars Collide successfully combine their technical playing with catchiness and memorability though, and that´s one of the greatest strengths of "Grotesque". It´s equal parts technical and accessible. Not the easiest balance to strike and master.

"Grotesque" features a powerful, raw, and well sounding production job, which suits the material perfectly, and it´s great to hear an independently released album featuring a sound production of this quality. There are a few moments here and there which are a bit rough around the edges, but overall this still is a quality sound production.

Upon conclusion "Grotesque" is a strong debut album by Polars Collide and it features lots of promise for future releases too. They should maybe think about not wearing their influences too much on their sleeves like they sometimes do, and I´d recommend writing slightly more conscise material and leave out some of the more progressive ideas for greater immediate impact, because they really have a lot of great things to offer, but they need that last push in the right direction to shine even more. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved, and I´m probably even being a bit cheap here.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Traumatica Metalcore
NO GUERRA
Buy this album from MMA partners
Within the Visceria Death Metal
NECKBREAKKER
Buy this album from MMA partners
EP 1 Sludge Metal
CHAOTIC AGGRESSION
Buy this album from MMA partners
Songs of Blood and Mire Black Metal
SPECTRAL WOUND
Buy this album from MMA partners
Everything Hurts And I'm Dying Atmospheric Sludge Metal
NEGATIVE BLISS
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Origin Of Infinity - Chronosphere (OFFICIAL LYRIC VIDEO)
ORIGIN OF INFINITY
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Kingdom of Heaven - “Pleasures of Pain”
KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
Bosh66· 1 day ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Sanctuary [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 18 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Farewell [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 18 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Curtain of Death - [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 18 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed