Cavern Deep - S/T - Tracklisting
1.Staring Down
2.Abandoned Quarters
3.Ominous Gardens
4.Waterways
5.Leap of Faith
6.Deeper Grounds
7.Fungal Realm
8.The Dark Place
Review
Cavern Deep debut full length album is a primarily a Psychedelic Doom Metal record but the band venture out into other areas of music such as Prog Rock. Stoner Metal and Grunge. This is a concept album with Cavern Deep telling a story about an ill-fated expedition which goes badly wrong. Maybe not the most exciting of stories but Cavern Deep work wonders with the musical journey for this album.
The album does have a deeply rich background to it all that allows Cavern Deep to play fast and loose with the rules of Prog Rock/Metal but still offering a heavy Psych Doom/Stoner Metal experience. The whole thing can be quite “Spaced Out” despite the story being set in the vast underground caves of Planet Earth.
There are 8 songs here each telling an exciting chapter of the album. There are parts of the album that can be quite dramatic and remind myself of MUSE in many ways. Obviously the heavier and faster moments of the record are a welcome addition (I’m not going to say distraction), and the slower parts bring GRAVITAS and real human emotion to the entire flow of the album.
The vocals also remind myself of Chris Cornell before they drift off into slightly more operatic fare. The lyrics are constantly moving the album forward with Cavern Deep excelling when they play a more meditative style of Psychedelic Doom Metal that mostly appear in the 1st half of the album. Throw in a deep love of 70s Hard Rock and 90s (and onwards) Alternative Metal and sometimes it really is hard to describe Cavern Deep’s overall sound.
Normally I would do a song-by-song review or describe some of the songs on the record but it’s really best just to class this album as one epic song but spliced into individual chapters but if I have to point out my favourite songs on the album then I’ll go with the following:
Abandoned Quarters, Ominous Gardens, Waterways, Leap Of Faith, Fungal Realm and The Dark Place.
As these songs are where I felt Cavern Deep showed the best creative ideas, vocals and sounds. Maybe not the heaviest but there are a lot of fantastic and bleak heavy grooves to sit through.
The production is first-rate with Cavern Deep offering a deeply atmospheric and rich variety of different styles of music to admire from afar. This is quite different from the usual Doom/Stoner Metal albums we hear and expect from the legendary Swedish scene.
Cavern Deep's debut album is a challenging, dark, daring and extremely bold album to release for your debut album but at least the band have the BALLS to do something like this and ultimately it’s a record that’s worth every minute of your DAMN time.
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to Keith at Infecting Cells PR for the promo.
The album is being released digitally on July 23rd 2021. The Vinyl will be released Interstellar Smoke Records later this year.
Links:
Facebook | BandCamp | Instagram
