We often read expressions like "the band has matured," "the band has changed," "the band is evolving," yet these phrases are not always used appropriately. In the case of GRAVEWORM, for instance, these phrases would be completely incorrect if we are talking about what has been happening with the band creatively over the past four years. It's all quite simple. From the very first album through "Engraved In Black," there was a core of unchanged members: vocalist Stefan Fiori, keyboardist Sabine Mair, and guitarist Stefan Unterpentinger. The latter two essentially created the music we heard on those albums, with the main burden naturally falling on the guitarist. In 2003, guitarist Stefan left the band, and on the next album we see the following lineup situation: Eric Righi serves as rhythm guitarist, having joined the group just before the recording of "Engraved In Black" in 2003, while the lead guitar part was performed by an entirely new member, Lukas Flarer. Thus the musical material was written by people who had previously had no connection to the band. "(N)Utopia" did indeed differ from everything that came before — tight, almost death metal riffs, hardness, aggression. On one hand, it continued the trend toward heavier material begun in 2001; on the other, it was qualitatively distinct from prior material. However, Lukas did not stay long in the band. In the current album's booklet we see yet another change of lead guitarist — Thomas Orgler has taken the position. Virtually all of the material on "Collateral Defect" was written by him. The album contains just 10 compositions, the first of which is a sort of intro lasting two and a half minutes, created entirely by computer. The last composition, an instrumental, was written by guitarist Eric. There is also one cover, and one song authored by Lukas Flarer, whom Thomas replaced. In the remaining 6 compositions, only one credits both guitarists as authors; in all the rest, only Thomas is listed, along with Sabine, who as always handled the keyboards.
Such an extensive introduction I allowed myself only because it clearly explains why the new album differs so drastically from its predecessor. There seems to be heaviness and drive in it, yet at the same time we hear fundamentally different riffs, completely unlike what we heard on "(N)Utopia," and the perception of the two albums differs substantially. This one turned out much darker, the atmosphere is entirely different — far less aggression, more pensiveness. The approach to keyboards is fundamentally different as well: this time we actually hear keyboards rather than an attempt to use a synthesizer to substitute for various instruments, predominantly strings. The only thing that remains exactly the same is the vocal technique — the same combination of Stefan Fiori's high and low growling. Despite the album not having that many songs (including instrumental pieces and a cover, it runs just over 40 minutes), overall it feels more diverse than its predecessor. The measured "Bloodwork," the aggressive yet not fast "Touch of Hate," the memorable keyboard-driven "Suicide Code," followed by "The Day I Die" with its catchy guitar line... The almost hardcore "Fragile Side" sounds quite unexpected — very melodic, featuring clean vocals. "Out of Clouds" even ventures into prog territory. "Scars of Sorrow," a composition written by Lukas Flarer, instantly transports us back to the previous album. Right after it comes a beautiful six-minute instrumental outro, but there remains one more track that must be mentioned — it precedes Flarer's song and has nothing to do with GRAVEWORM whatsoever, just as "It's A Sin," "Fear Of The Dark," and "Losing My Religion" had nothing to do with them. This time, the cover target is the famous Bonnie Tyler hit "I Need A Hero." The instrumental side is top-notch as always — the musicians managed to preserve a certain lightness and energy of the original, though the vocals in this situation are as unfamiliar as ever, since the cover was made of a female voice, albeit a raspy one. All in all, the album is very, very decent. If you don't hear it after the first listen, I strongly recommend spinning the disc a few more times — it deserves it.