IT’S FINALLY TIME TO LOVE CALIBAN!
In my heart is a cherished memory of this two-day metal festival I attended in like 2001. The big headliners were predictably exciting, but I arrived before lunch to take in sets from then-fledgling acts Dillinger Escape Plan, Shadows Fall, and that band whose van crashed real bad and who mixed hardcore with jazz and rap and shit. Candiria. That’s it.
But as sometimes happens, an unknown band totally stole the show: Caliban from Chermany. Before the metalcore quintet took the stage, I’d been kinda distracted by drugz and some band guys douchily flaunting their nasty gfs/escorts, but with each Caliban jam, I went from sitting with chin in palm, to standing, to stumbling toward the front to jam, to rocking wildly with dudes. Somehow Caliban owned the fest until the next night when Pantera closed the shit down. Awesome! I was pumped for them! But the next week, I heard their then-new record, Vent.
With each track on Vent, I went from puzzlement, to disappointment, to singing along via a chorus of fart sounds. The shit was weak. BUMMER.
But I didn’t freak out cuz inside this underachieving band had to be a great one someday to break free. Cuz Vent wasn’t indicative of Caliban’s radness. Like, maybe they’d been constrained by trendy genre convention. Maybe their label/management had talked them into some bullshit. Maybe the young bros’ songwriting had yet to catch up to their live rippage. I decided to sit tight.
Ahem so here we are more than ten years and like six Caliban albums later, and my endurance has finally paid off. With I Am Nemesis, at last a Caliban record is as awesome as that long-ago live set. I guess the moral is to never give up on a band that your instincts tell you will be rad eventually! Check out the late-album thriller “Dein R3ich” (below) and u mosh!
-ADF
Get Caliban’s I Am Nemesis vinyl+CD here. Fuckin’ finally!
