THE WHO
The Story of Quadrophenia
"'Tommy' changed everything and saved us," Pete Townshend remembers in the introductory essay to the 2011 re-release of "Quadrophenia". Basically, The Who had been a singles band in the sixties; the sudden intellectualization of pop music had posed a new, unexpected challenge to its thought leader. "People suddenly wanted to hear 'serious' music from pop groups.
YES
Between heaven and earth
In Greek mythology, Atlas carries the vault of heaven on his shoulders. Even Titan might have lifted himself up on the sound block "Shoulders & Giants", which Collapse Under The Empire created three years ago: instrumental flights of fancy, which draw their power from a nerve-racking tension, made this album the climax in the work of the North German post rockers to date. Now they let "Sacrifice & Isolation" follow, which aesthetically immediately follows "Shoulders & Giants".
In between they had released "Fragments Of A Prayer" and the EP "The Silent Cry". "Originally, the second part was supposed to be released the following year," the band explains to us in an e-mail interview. "But we had to realize that we were not ready to dive into the darkest realms of history for 'Sacrifice & Isolation'. Many of the tracks we composed after the first part just weren't dark enough to finish the second part."
Collapse Under The Empire have already taken some time to complete their concept, which was launched in 2011 with "Shoulders And Giants". Time that was shortened a little with interim stuff like the album "Fragments Of A Prayer" and the EP "The Silent Cry". Now, almost three years later, the concept of two albums finally comes to an end with "Sacrifice & Isolation".
