Caliban
I am Nemesis

The German Caliban lovers in Caliban puts an ugly man at the cover of their eight full length album that seems to bleed from his eyes and mouth like the sea man he probably is and in the opening track of the album they repeat the sentence You got to be fucking kidding me" over and over which is probably aimed at the cover person because that guy really looks like something you got to be fucking kidding me about!

I'm thinking "Swedish" already in the first couple of minutes and "Finnish" is another word that springs to mind like those clown heads on springs inside a box that springs out when you open it. However, the Germans in this band doesn't get too Scandinavian and particularly the rhythm section is very German and efficient. The vocals are another thing that the trained professional will soon distinguish from the Scandinavian sounding vocalists, all though it mostly is balancing on the borders of the good old northern sound.

The album is really heavy and hard and not just on the surface like most death metal albums tends to be but really, truly hard. The bass is thundering most of all and contributes to that heavy sound but there is also samplings and programming to be heard through most of the album. I'm actually thinking a bit of Linkin Park, but a Linkin Park that has seen their families brutally butchered with razor sharp saws right in front of them making them more pissed off, angry, hateful and a bit heavy hearted than that light weight, major playing band they are. But Caliban isn't Linkin Park and honestly not even very similar, instead I'd say they sound pretty much like a heavier In Flames-wanna be band like so many other when you hear them first but even this feels like a bad generalization after a few runs because there's quite a lot more in Caliban than just being a copy cat act. Their sound is big and grand and they have sometimes really genius melodies mixed into this heavy production. The vocals could easily be mistaken for being plain insanity growls but as the matter of fact, they come with superb sense in where, when and how they're put in the music. And also the guitars sound very appealing, though perhaps not too advanced played if I'm honest.

I think the most interesting feature of this album is the vocals, because in a few of the songs we get quite aggressive shouting mixed with clean vocals in a way I haven't heard many bands do it, if any as the matter of fact. The concept have been used many times, but the way Caliban has done it is very different. Also, some of the songs gives us those psycho shouting vocals that Linkin Park always use, thus my reference to them earlier, and sometimes they just do their growl/clean vocals mix in the same way as most other melodic death metal bands do it: shout-shout-scream-growl-clean vocals-shout-shout-shout-growl-growl-growl-clean vocals-scream. One thing that makes Calibans vocals unique though is that most of the time they sounds horrific and makes you wanna gag or puke because of how terrible it sounds. But then, at the same time you can't deny that it's amazingly well blended in to the music. The different characteristics in vocals could perhaps be a result of the four guest vocalists that's lended their voice to 'I Am Nemesis', which might be the reason why the vocals don't have any clear direction either and you can't know what to expect from them. And talking about unexpected things, right in the middle of Davy Jones they just stop everything and say the words "well, I didn't see that one coming" before completely changing the characteristics of the song by repeatedly shouting "get lost, get the fuck away from me" as angry as they can for almost a minute until the song ends… talk about they got to be fucking kidding me!

Seen over these 12 tracks, I think Caliban has made a good album and they've really put an effort in making it sound so even when you look deep down the details of it and how it's made. The production is made with great precision, the instruments well played and the song writing maintains your interest throughout the entire album. Despite most songs really sounding different to each other, the album feels unitary and cohesive right to the end without anything on it feeling inept. The only thing I can make any sort of complain about it the vocals because despite they're well made, I can't help feeling it sounds really terrible, regardless of how many times I play this album.

This album doesn't make my eyes and mouth bleed, on the contrary I think it's an album you may play so many times your ears starts to bleed. Partly because it's so good and partly because it's so aggressive. And well, I didn't see that one coming...

HHHHHHH