Official press release:
Cold Spring Records presents Mechanical Christ, the second full-length release from Australian post-industrial trio, Kollaps. Confirming the album for release on Friday, May 3rd, the band and label have issued an official video for the punishing lead single, “Fleshflower”, which sees its public premiere through CVLT Nation.
Kollaps creates a unique brand of primitive noise “intended for degenerates and outsiders,” as per the members. The band’s distinctive primordial tones are created using appropriated waste materials like scrap metal, raw plastics, and steel plates, combined with blistering percussion, bass, and vocals. This is no empty “industrial” gesture; for the band, this process of creation facilitates the literal use of postmodern society against itself.
Mechanical Christ, the second full-length Kollaps release, is a conceptual continuation of its predecessor, Sibling Lovers. This release sees Kollaps further their exploration of the inherent societal sickness of our times, one that manifests itself in the debasement of individual morality. Themes of exploitation, vengeance, drug addiction, paranoia, and slave labor are part of a dissonant, inverted morality play. Testament to the band’s evolving conceptual depth are the overarching themes of love, life, and death, which offer a sense of shared experience in the discomfort of the universal human experience. Known for their violent and nihilistic stage performances, this recording encapsulates with harsher clarity the visceral confrontation that is the Kollaps live act.
Mechanical Christ was recorded and mixed over a two-month period at Aviary Studios by Mike Deslandes, except “Ankara” which was’ recorded and mixed by Wade Black and produced by Black and Damian Coward. The album was mastered by James Plotkin at Plotkinworks (Khanate) and completed with photography by Kazimierz Zdzieblo and design by Ligeia Black. A thirty-six-minute journey into the desperation and lack of resolve that is both the crux of modern social ills and at the very heart of the human condition, Mechanical Christ delivers seven tracks of blistering harsh noise akin to acts such as Swans, Whitehouse, Khanate, and Pharmakon. The band offers:
“Musically ‘Fleshflower’ was inspired by Japanese artists and films such as Der Eisenrost, Shin’ya Tsukamoto’s Tetsuo: The Iron Man and the Guinea Pig series of films. The song title itself is a reference to Flowers of Flesh, and Blood, an early ’90s film which was mistaken for a genuine snuff film and investigated by the FBI. Lyrically the song references the disposability of flesh. Both the song and video of ‘Fleshflower’ explore the fine line between birth and death.”
Mechanical Christ will see release on CD, LP, and digital formats via Cold Spring Records Friday, May 3rd. Find pre-orders and more info HERE.
Mechanical Christ track listing:
- “Ankara”
- “Cruficy”
- “Fleshflower”
- “Bloom Premonitions”
- “Traducer”
- “Mechanical Christ”
- “Love Is A War”
