Caliban - The Undying Darkness
Rating
RIYL
As I Lay DyingHaste The Day
Heaven Shall Burn
Killswitch Engage
Release Date
04/04/2006
Label
Century MediaTracklist
1. Intro2. I Rape Myself
3. Song About Killing
4. It’s Our Burden To Bleed
5. Nothing Is Forever
6. Together Alone
7. My Fiction Beauty
8. No More 2nd Chances
9. I Refuse To Keep On Living
10. Sick Of Running Away
11. Moment Of Clarity
12. Room Of Nowhere
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In the world of predictable metalcore bands lives Caliban, rockers from Germany, Earth. After seven releases Caliban refuse to call it quits and deliver The Undying Darkness, their new LP filled to the brim with mediocre metal that you’ve heard a hundred times and enjoyed. Although this album is nothing new to your ears it is still fun to listen to nonetheless, mediocre or not.
The Undying Darkness begins with a rather slow start. You know, the slow starts with the rather pointless melancholy introduction of just piano playing. If this were a clever idea to build up a metalcore CD I’d say go for it, but this time around it’s just plain OLD. We’ve heard this before; let’s move onto the actual songs now where we experience other elements that you’ve heard many times before.
The first actual song, “I Rape Myself”, is a simple structured metalcore song that clearly represents what the entirety of the album will sound like. It’s packed with double bass, breakdowns, a catchy singing chorus, and pretty horrible lyrics. Any song where the vocalist actually sings “I Rape Myself” in a happy go lucky fashion is never a good thing. As catchy as it may be, this chorus is now just ruined. The song title is enough in itself, but to sing it word for word like you are Brittany Spears is a no go for me.
A couple tracks later comes “It’s Our Burden To Bleed”, the highlight of the album. Although this song is somewhat repetitive and predictable for the first ¾ of it, it is a rather fun song. I find myself head banging to it and swaying back and forth to the catchy breakdowns all the time. The best part about this song is the final breakdown which reminds me of something out of a straight edge hardcore band such as xBishopx or On Broken Wings. It’s fresh in that it was the first thing that actually took me by surprise, and the fact that it’s downright brutal is always a huge plus in my book.
The rest of the album is pretty much straight forward metalcore resembling As I Lay Dying and Killswitch Engage, filled with parts I enjoy very much and others I dislike very much. One thing that bothers me about this album is that it doesn’t have a proper conclusion. “Room Of Nowhere” the final track is just another simple structured metalcore song displaying all of the same elements as the other tracks on the CD. If you were to put The Undying Darkness on shuffle you probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference from the actual order of the songs because every one sounds almost identical and there really aren’t any parts to break up the songs. Although there are some standout moments on this CD, and as fun as it may be to listen to, it in no way shows me anything I haven’t heard before and in two weeks I’ll be 100% dissatisfied and bored with it. I don’t mean to bash a band for not blowing my mind and for supporting mediocrity, but I’d like to see more imagination in metalcore bands rather then boring, depressing piano introductions and repetitive song writing.
--Chris Pandolfo
Comments
Florida, USA
Minnesota
Anyways, I would have given this a 3.5. Much better than their older stuff, but not nearly as good as the bands they're emulating.
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Minnesota
Agreed. Sounds a ton like AILD, which for me isn't necessarily a bad thing.
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Charleston, SC
Atascadero, CA
thats a bold statement when half the album upon further listen sounds like an entire As I Lay Dying ripoff album. Its unfortunate how similar they sound, if you dont believe me put on the some AILD then some CALIBAN, the riffs are almost identical, tough to say its "original" by any means. but maybe thats just my interpretation, or, you haven't heard AILD before.
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Minnesota
There are actually 3 songs on this album that, if you removed the vocals, would be totally indecipherable from AILD tracks. This is that much of a rip off album.
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