Reviews

At this past Hellfest in New Jersey, I didn’t see Caliban.  I did however see two hardcore kids from California who didn’t have a place to stay. They stayed at my house for a few days until they got a ride back with the DC band Reflux who were on tour with Germany’s very own Caliban. After they got home, the Californians said the best part of their two week cross country jaunt was seeing Caliban live every night. So with the very highest of expectations, I eagerly opening The Opposite From Within and was disappointed. Sure there’s some really impressive fretwork that sounds like gentle stabbings amidst the double bass pounding, but there’s also way boring Atreyu-esque melodic parts, and a nagging feeling that I’m listening to Hatebreed sung with a German accent. There’s a lot of good stuff happening when they play their metal, but then badly sung melodies float in like clouds of smog on a clear day. It’s almost as if there were two bands named Caliban, and rather than go through a protracted legal dispute over useage of the name, they decided to release one album together with one band (the awesome one) playing metal, and the other one (the not so good one) beating out half tempo melodic metal. Ultimately I would love to love this, as there are great breakdowns and some really inspiring riffs with great HC vox, but then there’s the flip side of the coin.  Heads or tails: a fifty-fifty chance I’ll listen to this again.