If you want melodic traditional heavy metal with a penchant for hard rock sensibilities, there are few bands better and you won't hear a better album of that style than this one released in 2018.
“New Gods” CD//DD//LP track listing:
1. Prisoner of the Past 2. Letting Go 3. No Longer 4. Save the Truth – Syracuse 5. Never Be Found 6. Drown 7. Together as None 8. Isolation 9. Last Request
The Review:
Cauldron are back, close to three years after “In Ruin” and are not straying too far from their original raison d'etre: old school heavy metal, old school sounds, old school songs. Yep, Cauldronare plugging away; on the road, in the studio, presumably in a less than salubrious rehearsal room... Cauldron keep on keeping on.
“Prisoner of The Past” picks up where “In Ruin” left off, with tight and crunchy riffage- plus a dose of melody of course. The drums still thud like 83, rather than snapping like 2018 and reverb is present on the vocals and, indeed, all instruments. “Letting Go” is a melodic and dark track as the title suggests; with both of the first two tracks sounding like a wound down Accept, musically, if not vocally. Nice chorus and anthemic riffs combine to good effect.
Truthfully, I think the likes of “No Longer”could stand to be a little shorter (oh sweet prescient irony), but these are not thrashing and urgent tracks. They are hard rocking, but with quite some emphasis on rock rather than metal this time out. Again, the spectre of early Leppardis present at this feast- but it is a welcome apparition. The darkness of “Save The Truth- Syracuse” is well honed as the band again find their mid tempo groove.
“Never Be Found” doesn't move things around too much in terms of initial approach but the pre-chorus and chorus really lift this up. Great song writing and hooks. “Drown” sounds like a prime Paradise Lost track at first- a turn up for the books, but I was waiting for the tempo to lift and it did! This time, the band rip out some more thrashy riffs and it is a welcome throw back to the “Chained To The Nite” opus. Great cut.
“Together as None” is very light weight in comparison- there is plenty of light and shade on this album, for sure, but this particular track is a little too (bitter) sweet for my tastes and could easily have turned up on any hair metal album you could care to name. “Isolation”, meanwhile, fulfils its titular promise of dark sounds, being as it is an instrumental and a good one. It's maudlin and brooding and one of the best things on the record. It sets thing up nicely for the appropriate “Last Request”which is another album highlight; a little quicker, a little heavier, a little more bite.
“New Gods” represents both more of the same for Cauldron and is also leaning a bit further towards the melodic song writing present on all their releases thus far. For me, I yearn for some of the crunchier riffage that was present on earlier career tracks such as “Conjure The Mass”, but no one can deny the quality of the songs here. If you want melodic traditional heavy metal with a penchant for hard rock sensibilities, there are few bands better and you won't hear a better album of that style than this one released in 2018.
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