Caves - Caves CDr
September 19 2008 at 06:21:24 AM
Caves is a one man, self-described black metal band, hailing from Brooklyn, NY. Before we get to the gist of everything, a huge nod has to go to TWYRN (the soul behind Caves) with the layout and packaging of this CDr. The disc comes in a plain black, promo-like CD cardboard sleeve. I coulda swore this thing was silk screened with white ink, but it turns out the graphics were applied via a stamper using said white ink. White ink? I'm a designer and never seen white ink for stampers. Guess I'm still a little green. The stamping process actually looks like the art was applied with a sponge... it's a really sick effect. Done on purpose or not, it looks great.
In a complete clash to the rich black of the sleeve (which is hand numbered out of 73 copies I might add), the CDr is pale white with the cover art cropped and applied in black ink via stampers. In some respects, the clash between the black and white of the art and CDr, abstractly speak of what's contained on the CDr.
So what does it sound like? Well, it's definitely Black Metal in nature. However, I can't help but feel that it's as much BM as it is experimental noise/drone. Nothing essentially new in the realm of BM, but few can pull it off well and hold my attention doing it much like Caves can. If someone were to twist my arm and ask, "who do you think Caves sounds like?", my reply is a mix of Dapnom and Xasthur. Both rank high in the realm of sound collage and layering. It must be noted that Caves is NOT a Xasthur wanna-be/rip-off... thankfully.
The CDr opens with two tracks essentially in the experimental/drone realm with a noticeably blackened vibe. Layered, clean and distorted guitars, steeped in reverb and delay, clash between each other in perfect harmony. Moving onto the 2nd track introduces a field recording of what sounds like a yard full of crickets overlaying tremolo-picked guitar passages. There's some jabs of noise throughout. If you have really good headphones you might even notice the drums BURIED waaaaay beneath everything (as well as guitar string squeaks on some of the other tracks). Rather than the drums be percussive, they melt into a drone like lava that adds an inconspicuous, yet noticeable, bottom end. This song, 'The Plague That Now Sleeps Will Soon Awaken' is one of my favorites on the disc.
It's not until track 3 that the listener gets to any 'traditional' song structure. We're greeted to vox and a back beat that adds structure this time around. The vox, like the drums on track 2 are buried balls deep behind the guitar tracks and, for the most part, remind me of 'whisper tracks' ala early Integrity. Definitely not a bad thing.
The rest of the CDr follows pretty much the same formula as described above, but there are some more twists and turns to be had. For instance, the track, '1917', sounds like a wall of noise and droned out guitar feedback. It's probably one of the more harsh tracks on the album but it has a tempo, so it's not such a cacophonous mess. Finally, the closing track, also the longest track clocking in at 11:12 minutes, is comprised of layered, 'verbed and delayed, clean guitars playing repetitiously the same passage until they wither into an ambient drone ultimately closing the CD to the sound of silence.
The craft of TWYRN's layering make the somewhat simplistic guitar passages into dense, complex entities full of ambience and darkness and overall, i think the album has a huge suffocating and restricting vibe. The majority of the songs sound dead and buried with the only signs of life sounding like utter torment (i.e. the more noisy tracks). I like the fact that the majority of textures are obscured... you pay closer attention to the music more. It's almost like reading a good book where each page becomes something new and exciting. Highly recommended.
Be sure to check the link below as Caves is preparing to unleash a new CDr limited to 94 examples. Samples can be heard at the same location as well.
[chrisALPINO]
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Thanks for pointing me in this discs direction!
McKeating, Stew does like you.