Not even a whole year has past since their last release, yet Caliban is about the release a new album called The Awakening. Thank god, they choose this title because their working title was From Sorrow To Serenity, with which they would have reminded me too much to Killswitch Engage. Luckily they chose for a little bit more of an own identity.

After a great first album on Roadrunner Records called The Opposite From Within, they came with a, to me, somewhat disappointing album, The Undying Darkness. I’m very curious whether they made up for that on this album so let’s find out!

 

Ok folks, I’ve got a confession to make: I did not like The Undying Darkness that much because of Denis’ clean vocals. I heard that he had only improved since The Opposite From Within but that was only from a professional point of view. I personally dig the earlier clean vocals more, they simply gave me shivers down my spine. Anyways, I gotta confess that I was a bit sceptical about this album because I already knew that Denis would have improved even more with his clean vocals. And I was right. So, what more could I do than listen to this album with an open mind, willing to take the clean vocals for granted this time.

 

And I gotta say, listening with a completely open mind helped. I have found myself accepting almost everything that’s on the album, finally. And it’s quite a strong album again. Music wise it’s full of very strong riffing, although exactly the way we are used to from Caliban and with no real surprises. Most songs contain the typical tempo changes, varying from slow breakdown parts to aggressively fast metalcore guitars combined with Andy’s great vocals. You know, those vocals he seems to put in every fiber of his body. And, something new, even some whispering parts pass by.

 

The Awakening can be seen as an album that combines only the best from all of Caliban’s previously released albums. The band has grown again and made a very mature album. And although this must be considered in a positive way, I personally find it a little too mature sometimes. I just miss the rawness of a beginning metalcore band sometimes. It’s smoothen up a bit too much sometimes whereas I would have loved some more raging music. But, fortunately the album cover doesn’t resemble KsE covers this time!

 

All in all The Awakening can be seen as yet another typical Caliban album. The sound hasn’t changed that much over the years except from growing into a more mature one. Clean vocals or not, these guys have earned their stripes in the metalcore scene and with a good reason. Caliban fans are gonna love this one for sure!

 

Ps: I’m sorry I didn’t come up with particular titles for the songs but for some reason it was considered to be necessary to make the promo version a 99-track sampler again, too bad!