Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Collateral can be seen as holding a sense of security when all around you is holding you ransom to conform, to toe the wide line of obedience, submission and not trespass into creative insubordination, Collateral though is ammunition, it is knowing that what is in the heart can devastate the mind with urgency and command.
For the four-piece Kent based band, Collateral, their eponymously titled debut album is one that comes on the back of the immensely enjoyable four strong song E.P. 4 Shots, and with their backs covered, the shoot out of great Rock sounds sends shivers down the spines of those who stare like frightened rabbits down the barrel of the warmth, expectation and music delivery to which Collateral have become a force.
If 4 Shots was a clean explosion of introduction, then the sights have been truly raised and primed in this their full-length debut. For Ben Atkinson, Todd Winger, Angelo Tristan and Jack Bentley-Smith, the sense of achievement supplied in those four initial songs, has been quite rightly been allowed to be stored in the memory but to be rested upon, which has been the death knell of many a band across all genres. Instead the foursome growl deeply, and they back this up with the pulse of blood that rages, the blast of release almost seismic in its overview.
Across tracks such as Promiseland, In It For Love, Midnight Queen, Get Back To You and the superb Won’t Stop Me Dreaming, the length of time in the studio shows its steel, the passion that somehow has engrained itself in between each pulse, in the very heart of the lyric and the sound, is frantic, uncompromising and sensational.
There is a presence within the soul of Collateral which is pleasing on the ear but also has the determination to ask you to arm your mind, to keep your eyes alert and the other senses heightened, for the so called truth bombs of the ill-judged and bitterly envious will always rain down with ill-considered aim, instead, and what might be quite a novel approach for some, should be to take what Collateral have managed to do and praise and admire the sound.
A fantastic, determined album, one to which the foundations of the next album is assured.
Collateral release their self-titled debut album on February 21st via Roulette Media Records.
Ian D. Hall