UMUR "Grotesque" is the debut full-length studio album by Danish, Aarhus based metal act Polars Collide. The album was independently released in July 2021. Polars Collide formed in 2017 and released the "One to Rise" EP later that same year. Leading up to the release of "Grotesque", the band released a couple of digital singles featuring tracks from the album.

Stylistically the material on "Grotesque" is groove oriented death/thrash featuring chugging angular riffs and heavy beats. Sometimes the music touches death metal territory with blast beats, tremolo riffs, and growling vocals, but if I have to mention a reference it would be a more simple and less chaotic Meshuggah (and maybe even a little Lamb of God). Polars Collide are not Meshuggah clones though, and they bring a lot of other things to the table in addition to that influence. The heavy groovy riffs and rhythms are central to the band´s sound, as well as the well performed aggressive and raw semi-growling vocals by lead vocalist Martin Borre. The lead guitar work is quite intricate and the atmospheric clean guitar sections provide the music with variation and a dark alien atmosphere.

The tracks are generally pretty long and the song structures are unconventional and at times even progressive. The two closing tracks which are the title track and "Cancer" are both over 10 minutes long and features quite a few different sections and songwriting ideas (the opening minutes of "Cancer" reminds me a lot of the most mellow Opeth songs from around the turn of the millenium). So describing the music above as simple is only in reference to the technical frenzy of Meshuggah. This is not simple music and it´s quite technical in its own right. Polars Collide successfully combine their technical playing with catchiness and memorability though, and that´s one of the greatest strengths of "Grotesque". It´s equal parts technical and accessible. Not the easiest balance to strike and master.

"Grotesque" features a powerful, raw, and well sounding production job, which suits the material perfectly, and it´s great to hear an independently released album featuring a sound production of this quality. There are a few moments here and there which are a bit rough around the edges, but overall this still is a quality sound production.

Upon conclusion "Grotesque" is a strong debut album by Polars Collide and it features lots of promise for future releases too. They should maybe think about not wearing their influences too much on their sleeves like they sometimes do, and I´d recommend writing slightly more conscise material and leave out some of the more progressive ideas for greater immediate impact, because they really have a lot of great things to offer, but they need that last push in the right direction to shine even more. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved, and I´m probably even being a bit cheap here.