Band:	Blastanus
Album:	Collapse
Style:	Brutal death metal
Release date:	July 2011

01. Tomorrow Is Better
02. Reward Failure
03. Science Of Tyranny
04. Culture Of Entitlement
05. Hammerfist
06. Decoded
07. Evolutionary Dead End
08. Arctic Despair
09. Hegemony
10. Liberation/Salvation
11. Collapse

Blastanus is a Finnish death metal group worth remembering. Maybe not entirely for their music, but definitely for their name: Blastanus. And anything plus "anus" equals half a lol at least.

When it comes to living up to their name, these guys have the "Blast" half down to a science. There are a lot of blast beats on this. And somewhat surprisingly, without getting too repetitive, they sound great throughout. The drummer has chops and the production (which was done superbly) brings him out accordingly.

This only kind of lives up to the "anus" half, though. "Anus" shares with its more abused cousin, the word "asshole", some connotation of offensiveness. Collapse is brutal and ugly, but ultimately most of it hasn't got all that much that's new or ear-straining to it. By death metal standards, most of it is pretty safe. It's heard-it-before kind of stuff.

Not that that really matters when the music is executed really well. And, in the end, Collapse is brutal shit played really well. So if you don't care too much about uniqueness and you just want to go around stomping on things to some dirty death metal, this absolutely won't disappoint...

...Not much, at least. Thing is, there are a few really creative moments on this. But, by the end, they feel more like appetizers than meals. The intro and the closer, for instance, are brilliant. And they've got motherfucking saxophones in them. Anus. Wtf, sonically-psychotic moments blend seamlessly with some really filthy, barbaric sounding grind-infused death riffs. If this album isn't, as a whole, a drop-everything sort of deal, the intro and closer both are.