Collapsar

Finally, a math rock band that titles their album what it is; Integers is the sophomore release from Louisiana’s calculus-derived Collapsar. For the exactly 60 minutes of the six protracted tracks, this trio of mad scientists distil pure fretboard gymnastics and stuttering drum fills that deem their previous parsimony a thing of the past. Their closest comparison remains Dysrhythmia, but that similarity has become harder to justify. Both "Axiomatic Fragment” and "He’s Got an Axe!” dive off the deep end into typhoon-swirled Meshuggah waters, though they break into epic Fucking Champs mode halfway through to allow breathing space. The ultra-thrash-y riffage in "The Great Caldera” is fast enough to induce fire by friction, yet the 11-minute "Spooky Action at a Distance” resembles a lean’n’mean King Crimson before hitting the accelerator like Burnt by the Sun near the end. "Drilling Holes Through Space” retains a bottom-heavy buzz like old Keelhaul, and the album closer, the monstrous 19-minute "The Forever War,” combines all these elements into a suite-like composition, replete with guitar solos. Collapsar adroitly manage their whirl-gigging metallic sonatas of panchromatic angling, which will leave fans with a new sense of metal purpose.