Hot on the heels of a variety of festival performances where they’ve cultivated a swath of new fans and followers, COBRA THE IMPALER are back with a follow-up to their powerful debut Colossal Gods. Karma Collision offers up ten new tracks and a swirling, intoxicating sound as kaleidoscopic as the album cover. With captivating dual guitars and attention-grabbing vocals, the Belgian quintet have crafted a work of heavyweight power and are keen to cement the accolades they’ve already earned and highlight that they’re a force to be reckoned with.
With a commanding blow, Magnetic Hex serves to dispel any thoughts that COBRA THE IMPALER might rest on their laurels, with a powerful full band sound cascading through the riffs and rhythms while the vocals soar clearly in the mix with an engaging melody. As an album opener, it’s a full on rager, delivering all the elements that the band crafted on the debut and offering a sense of refinement and exploration.
Current single Season Of The Savage portrays the sense of growth even further. The qualities that shone so brightly previously are honed to a point, and driving the soaring melodies is an established rhythm section that is inexorable in its delivery. The track has a heavyweight bombast that stands out and when the guitar solo kicks in the atmosphere generated is one that will lead many to hit the replay button.
As mentioned, this album has a swirling, kaleidoscopic feel to it. There’s always another layer to discover and what may at first appear out of place slots together to deliver an expansive sound. This is evident on the title track. With a gentle acoustic prelude in the form of Eye Of The Storm, Karma Collision sits at the midpoint and joins together all the aspects of what the band have created. The previous track blends seamlessly into it, allowing for the full band sound to overtake the gentle acoustic tones like a hurricane replacing a soft breeze. Rather than jarring with what has gone before, it heightens the sense of songwriting and techniques that the band employ, illustrating that they’ve become comfortable with putting in a powerful dynamic shift and have the quality to execute to such a high standard. As a standalone track it carries a lot of presence and will certainly go down a storm in their live setlists.
Like many albums that contain an array of songwriting elements, if the mix doesn’t match that precision and power, a record can fall flat. That’s not the case here. Each rise and fall of dynamic is perfectly accentuated, and the clarity of the melodies allow them to carve through the roaring rhythms. The textual layers are coherent and there is a lucidity to the tracks that complements the musical intensity. Tracks like The Fountain and Assassins Of The Vision benefit hugely from the lush mixing. On any other album, these two songs would stand as the pinnacle, yet here, while they are exemplary of the band, the mix allows them to both stand out yet fit the unity of the album. The result is Karma Collision becomes an immensely engrossing work.
As a sophomore release, Karma Collision fulfils the brief and then some, firmly establishing the techniques and themes from the debut yet offering enough explorative variation so that it is neither a one-dimensional copy nor a collection of tracks that didn’t make the initial cut. It may not quite reach the same electrifying heights as the previous album, but it can certainly hold its own and will definitely allow for the band to grow and reach new audiences.
Rating: 8/10
Karma Collision is set for release on May 31st via Listenable Records.
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