Artist: Caliban
Label: Century Media
Release: 2011
Length: 13:51
Rating: 4/5
Releases full of covers always get a mixed reaction. In the eyes of die-hard fans, it’s a welcome addition to their CD shelves and/or their pile of every possible souvenir churned out by the band’s capitalist machinery. For the defenders of the originals, it’s pure sacrilege, but let’s leave them aside this time, since they’re irrelevant. A covers release is, then, a kind of provocation in the world of rock entertainment: one part of the audience always looks on it favorably and nods along, while the other part is plainly hostile to such moves.
14 minutes, four songs. Not too much, not too little. German metalcore! Caliban. The lineup is a mixed bag: Type O’ Negative, Rammstein, At The Gates, The Beatles. What more could you possibly ask for? Frank Sinatra? You can guess right away which two of those bands suit Caliban like a glove and which two less so.
Yes. Rammstein and At The Gates. In line with the Germanic musical philosophy of the new era. You take Teutonic thrash, mix in a bit of Gothenburg melody, crank it up to extreme speed, overdose on dizzyingly paused “breaks” and dinner is served. Caliban have of course put their stamp on both songs, but both also stay close to the originals. After all, Caliban are a kind of modern metal offshoot, and the Gothenburg death metal scene undoubtedly shaped their sound. Sonne (orig. Rammstein) also keeps the epic scale and pomp of the darkly booming melodies that accompany the screaming in the chorus, which in turn carries over into a melodic feel with a similar mood to the original. Keyboards are added on top!
Wherever possible, lead vocalist Andreas Dörner out-screams everything that can be out-screamed! The band, whom someone may have caught in Maribor in February 2009, when they played as support for the far more notorious legendary German thrashers Kreator, is preparing material for a new record in 2011. But before Caliban dive fully into recording, they clearly wanted some extra release and fun. It’s best when you spice it up by playing songs from artists who left a special impression on you with their work. Especially if they’re light-years away from what you do in terms of genre. Despite the barely noticeable recognizability of Helter Skelter, its excellent arrangement has to be pointed out. The song sounds almost unrecognizable if you call the original to mind. With this cover, Caliban prove the skill, power and know-how to effectively and optimally pour the whole essence of their music into the original of a band that’s in no way related to them, while still delivering all the basic attributes of the Caliban theater, which relentlessly spews aggression, dread and evil, and paints for any listener the typical bloody vistas of humanity’s doom.
Blinded By Fear will crack your skull with its venomous, raw, ominous stance. The band’s destructiveness really comes through in it, and of course, as already mentioned, the starting point for achieving something like that is the noise template Caliban found in At The Gates. Caliban add pomp by imitating third-based harmonies, or by using such double harmonies to replace parts of the original songs that solved the melodic foundation of those sections differently. In terms of compatibility with Caliban’s language, it’s the closest pick among the Rammstein and At The Gates covers, but not necessarily the most interesting. This time, first place for most interesting on this EP goes to Helter Skelter.
“Coverfield” boasts excellent, furious, white-hot production. The same producer and the same studio were kept. The energy in these covers carries over from the band’s studio album “Say Hello To Tragedy” (2009) and presents Caliban at the peak of their powers in this lineup, which is even richer in performance and arrangement, and even tighter in coherence and in the instrumental and vocal communication and understanding between the members.
An EP that’s excellent in every respect, it’ll be welcome as a stopgap while you wait impatiently for the band’s new studio release, and in that regard it undoubtedly brings a balm for the wounds of faithful Caliban fans, as well as those of you who get fired up by the legacy of bands like Heaven Shall Burn and/or The Haunted. So reach for “Coverfield” without a worry.
Lineup
Andreas Dörner – screamed vocals
Denis Schmidt – guitar, clean vocals
Marc Görtz – guitar
Marco Schaller – bass guitar, backing vocals
Patrick Grün – drums
Production
Benny Richter
Tracklist
1. My Girlfriend’s Girlfriend (3:47)
2. Sonne (3:45)
3. Blinded By Fear (2:35)
4. Helter Skelter (3:36)
