"Kollaps Tradixionales," the sixth full-length by Thee Silver Mt Zion, would be the perfect first album for somebody to hear from this group. Combining the simplicity of the first album, the melancholic dirges of the second album, and the increasingly confident choral singing of the remaining albums; their sixth full-length just might be their most encapsulating, and best, album.
Having re-structured their official name to Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra after bringing in a new drummer and losing a cellist after their last album, the 5-piece band is now comprised of two violins, one guitar, one contrabass, and one drummer - and all are vocalists, singing choruses in a... well, choral fashion.
It's a combination that makes these folks difficult to pin down into any genre - post-rock? Not instrumental enough. Freak folk? While the lead vocalist, Efrim, might be bearded, their music is too electric and not hipster enough to be lumped into that category. No, they are simply Thee Silver Mt. Zion - which usually means a politically charged theme running through the album, 6+ minute long songs of vocal urgency, a ghostly and tremolo-rich guitar sound, and thick layers of violin to give it an orchestral quality. Add to that the quintet's coming together at the climax of their multiple-movement songs, and you have the most majestic and sincere yearning for a better world ever laid to tape.
And that's what "Kollaps Tradixionales" is about, from the first song onwards - "There Is a Light," the album opener, starts off like a church hymn, complete with organ and a gentle building quality that eventually ends it's 15+ minute span with the entire group desperately crying out, "There is a light!!" - sentiments spoken from people who want to believe, have to believe, that there are righteous people trying to trudge along in a world that strives to push them down. And, then, at the end of the song, after all of the instruments have faded away, Efrim quietly states, "That was pretty good" - testament to the fact that, even though the group is admonished by many as being whiny and negative, that they are more than capable of creating beautiful tributes to the plights of many, and that they can be humbly surprised with their sonic results.
The rest of the album progresses very naturally - the second track "I Built Myself a Metal Bird," is easily their loudest choral rock (maybe that's their genre?) song, and their catchiest tune to date. "Catchy" is meant in relative terms - they're not going to be played on popular radio anytime soon; this song is simply SMZ at their most fun - as if the first song gave them so much hope, that they're riding that wave into this song and letting the world know that they're ready to "dance, motherfucker, dance" - which is the last repeated line of the song.
"I Fed My Metal Bird the Wings of Other Metal Birds" is the flip side of that song, partially in the way that the title finishes the previous song's title with a resolution of darkness. And partially due to the change in music - the song's 6+ minute run is mostly laden with ghostly, tremolo-rich, distorted guitar and sadly whining contrabass; before it explodes with one last energetic outburst that is reminiscent of the previous track. When this song ends, you, and seemingly the band, are spent from both collective disillusionment and the sonic onslaught.
By the time we reach the last song, we are ready for the end of the album - and that's a good thing - because this album does what many, many albums strive to do but fail: project a purely emotional experience, with a distinct beginning, middle, and end. While we began with a positive glimmer of hope, we quickly were reminded of the harshness of the world - but, the last song is sort of a call to arms, for both the listener and the group.
That last track, "'Piphany Rambler," states, "We crawled upside that mountain..." and then, "Don't take these blues away" - as if saying that the struggle is what keeps this entity alive, and is something that the listener shouldn't forget - that the struggle for any sort of peace and justice is simply going to be eternal, but that doesn't mean you should balk when you see "that mountain" before you. That's not what Thee Silver Mt. Zion are doing, and just listen to the result - their best album to date.
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