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Friday 7 March 2014

Caliban - Ghost Empire - Review

Ghost Empire is the 9th studio album by German metalcore band Caliban which was released on 24 January, 2014. This album is a dose of pure evolution of a band that is making insane music since 1997. This album is a level up to their maturity in the sense of growing and developing as a band, also keeping their sound as similar to the kind of sound present metalcore bands sound. The album is a hell ride of mix up of melody, riffs, breakdowns and as possible combination of vocals.

The album starts off with “King” which simply starts destructing you after few seconds; the groove this song keeps on maintaining with the punchy riffs is completely heavy as fuck. The album is literally meant for the metalcore fans as it maintains its heaviness, breakdowns and the melodic vocal feels will always remind us we are digging a metal core band. I bet “Chaos-Creation” is a good sing along song with its lyrical contents are fair enough to connect with people. “Wolves and Rats” posses much of melodic side of the album with a sweet start of the song and massive breakdowns in between, fair enough to get into a mosh. “nebeL” got some complicated riffs though simple but the use of clean vocals and mixing up with those heavy riffs and the mix of solos and breakdowns are so damn perfect.

The band implied some progressiveness to their riffs and song structure and it can be felt if the songs are listened nicely.  I really enjoyed the melodic feel with the clean vocals in the nowhere world of aggressive riffs and breakdowns in songs like “I Am Ghost”, “Devil’s Night”. “Your Song” is my favorite from the album as I really loved the start and the transformation to higher tempo with the crunchy breakdowns timed so perfectly with the combination of vocals.

The album carried lots of emotion, lots of stories behind each song. I somehow felt it justifies the journey of the band for so long and hence establishing as one of the best metalcore band. The emotions can be much more explored with the tracks like “Cries and Whispers”, “Good Man”, ”I am Rebellion” ; yes the name suggests a lot.

“Who We Are”, definitely express the face of the band and at some context the song structure is purely so much rooted to how a metalcore album should call its conclusion. The down parts of the song linked with the high parts perfectly and hence the development and evolution of the band can be sensed right away. “My vertigo” doesn't hold back in terms of melody and heaviness in context of the sound the band posses. The album concludes with “Falling Downwards” which also feat Matt Heafy of Trivium, and believe me the emotion this song carries is really heavy and can bring tears in your eyes. So much of perfectness before the album goes off with doses of melody, riffs, breakdowns, intense rhythm and so much of variations in vocals.


This album is made for metalcore diggers and especially for Caliban fans who are responsible for this long run of the band. “Ghost Empire” is a hell load album with 13 tracks ready to boil you out in your best pair of pants. Some words are still vibrating in my ears, I bet it will do in your ears as well. 

My Rating : 3.9/5

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