Noisy, post-post-post hardcore bands sometimes leave me confused; seen live, the effort and intensity of performances mark them out as serious; they seem to have an importance. Yet, the song titles mark them out as jokers (take The Locust's “Priest With the Sexually Transmitted Disease, Get Out of My Bed.”) The two titles on this single and live footage DVD release suggest that Collapse too, are having a chuckle at the typical apocalyptic themes of your old-school metal bands. “Stain Anxiety” and “Sinister Alignment” are a snide joke – I don’t imagine Collapse creating this frenetic, oblique workout because of their worry of spilling red wine on their darling neighbour’s magnolia carpet. The intensity and precision of performance against the droll derision of metal cliches confuses me: it’s hard to know whether to believe in each serrated slice of guitar or whether to laugh along with the jokes.

Contradiction and confusion can be fun though. This release has all the acerbic, acrid, and savoury qualities of the best salt and vinegar flavour crips. Crinkle cut, not standard, because this sounds crunchy and brittle as it breaks into shards of feedback. The drumming is pulverized jazz, all hi-hat shots and shattered cymbals. Guitars barely repeat a riff before inventing a new one.

This release was recorded simply on a four track, and it does highlight the live force that Collapse must have, but it also leads to a very roughly mixed sound with vocals muffled and distant. This is a noise-riot, but then so are Tera:Tora or That Fucking Tank and there is that not much evidence here to separate Collapse from a whole group of noisenik bands.