Grand Collapse are a hardcore band out of Wales. They’ve got a spark in them that prompts a prodigious outpouring of emotion and landscape scouring angst that is intense enough to polish down cobblestone and lift statutes right off their mountings. Speaking of toppling monuments, that’s how Grand Collapse’s third album, Empty Plinths, got its name.
During the summer of 2020, the uprising that had started in the U.S. with Black Lives Matter and their allies in protest of police brutality and racial inequality was taken up by activists in the U.K. and around the world. During the mass protests that followed, Grand Collapse’s singer Calvin witnessed the toppling of a statue of Edward Colston in Bristol.
Colston was a 17th Century merchant who made a fortune in Britain’s slave trade during his lifetime. and to Calvin, the capsizing of his memorial represented a triumph of sorts, and the clearing of the way for a better, more inclusive future for Britain. The sight was so inspiring to him and the rest of the band that it is actually memorialized on the cover of Empty Plinths with a woodcut designed by John Abell.
The rebellious message of Grand Collapse’s third album is mirrored in the catalytic quality of their music. The band have a solid grasp of the fundamentals of thrash and punk and combine them in ways that elevate their narrative and message, pushing it forward like the steam engine of a great locomotive.
As much as it might be tempting to simply peg their sound as Killing Time meets Conflict, that wouldn’t be doing it service. Grand Collapse have a talent for penning forceful guitar grooves, and even have the wherewithal to pull back on them to give a guitar lead its own space to breath when the timing is right. This is a trick that a lot of post-hardcore bands like Quicksand have also perfected, and which garners favorable comparisons here.
Beyond calls for solidarity and racial justice, Empty Plinths also conveys an anti-war message with the radiation-riddled shock wave of “Amydala” and makes a plea for animal rights on the loaded Cro-Mag-num shot across the brow “Claret Thirst.”
Propulsive and conscious, Empty Plinths is anything but vapid.
Buy and stream Empty Plinths below via Bandcamp.
A lot of people wanted to get a piece of this record, so you can get a copy of Empty Plinths on vinyl from Epidemic Records, TNS Records, Don’t Trust The Hype Records, Mass Prod., or Urinal Vinyl respectively.
