Caliban - Say Hello To Tragedy
Starting things off with a bang opening track '24 years' slams into you on Caliban's latest offering, 'Say Hello to Tragedy', and gives you a clear indication of what's to come.
Drummer Patrick Gruen thunders through ferocious beats tied neatly with Marco Schallers bass providing classic, fast paced, metalcore sensations. Marc Goertz and Denis Schmidt's guitars move between shredding solos and dexterous harmonies. Schmidt also lending his voice to vocals along with Andreas Doerner, between them achieving the perfect contrast of clean vocals mixed with guttural screams from start to end.
The bulk of the tracks are aggressive and demanding getting inside you and shaking you to your core. However, without straying too far from the genre's requirements of fast/slow melodic/shredding combinations, they personalise the album with subtle touches that keep the music fresh. 'Love Song' is an aggressive three and a half minutes of pure heaviness, while 'No One is Safe' gives you calmer guitars and jarring beats along with lyrical piano, delivering a broken song that catches your attention. 'Liar' stands out with a vicious sound that is just made for a room full of disenchanted kids to scream along to. They switch to something completely different with 'All I Gave' and 'Coma'. Showcasing a very different sound, while still remaining identifiably Caliban. Haunting harmonies float above the bass sounds, softer vocals, a greater use of piano and a pleading energy leave you uncomfortable, but in a good way.
'The Denegation of Humanity', stands out as the song that should be loved by rock radio and metalcore fans alike with the German quintet showing off their skills through fast paced guitar solo's and non stop energy.
There are subtleties in each song, but overall Caliban has delivered a cohesive, relative album that will not alienate existing fans and, with metalcore's popularity rising, should attract many new ones. They're touring the UK in November, so if you like your metalcore loud, get your hands on this album and a ticket to a gig because this is one band not to be missed.
From the thought provoking vocals through to the skillful depth of sounds, 'Say Hello to Tragedy' is overall a sonically satisfying album.