Child of Caesar
Spirit & Liberation

The story of Child of Caesar begins with a man named André Marcussen in 2011 who wanted to realise his vision of metal beyond the mainstream. I doubt he is the first with a similar vision, but the band attracted attention with their debut album Love in Black in 2015, or so I read. We apparently missed that one. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t great. And then there is the question of how relevant it could be for today’s review anyway considering that there is quite a bit of time that has passed since 2015, and a few big things as well. We can for instance notice that the band has a new vocalist, and some other changes there as well.

Spirit & Liberation has a cool artwork, a nice and gothic painting that illustrates well what it is about – but at the same time doesn’t give away too much. So on the looks it is interesting, and in the press sheet I read about “a multi-layered masterpiece of goth metal sound art with profound lyrics about sensitive thoughts on life and death.” How about that? And with an added touch of Marcussen’s humanistic undertones and homage to a mature world without religion, and supposedly the backsides that religions tend to bring upon the world. But surely I can agree that the world and humanity needs to mature, and it is not just the religions that needs to die – the post-truth world we live in today is a tad annoying as well.

It is Finnish goth metal that comes to mind, bands like To/Die/For, a bit Amorphis, and mostly for me it is Sentenced in the style of their latest efforts that comes to mind. The raspy gothic voice and catchiness reminds me of said Finns, and from what I can gather I am not the only one drawing the same comparisons. They are offering a strong modern production, perhaps sound art is a bit misrepresenting, especially considering that they aren’t exactly breaking much new musical grounds. The vocals are good, the new singer was a good choice. Another good thing is how they keep the playing time sensible with about forty minutes, that is always positive, the album is varied as well – a good production plain and simple.

And a good choice of albums to check out, there is quite a bit of hit-potential here. As always there is some room for thought, like where those profound lyrics went. Sure, the subjects are deep, but they aren’t really writing them any differently from previously mentioned examples. But with eleven great songs these guys would do really well in a just and fair world, but as you all know the world is far from that so they will eventually get what they get – but you who decided to get the album will be happy with that choice. I recommend taking a closer look at this one, I doubt you will regret it.

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