About.com Rating



Having bucked the metalcore trend by a couple of years, Germany’s Caliban are the classic example of a band who undeniably influenced a whole host of newer groups who eventually became more successful and well-known than them. It’s a shame, as the five-piece’s 2006 album The Undying Darkness is a great release, but their deep back catalogue is frustratingly patchy at best.

Putting out their eighth full length record, and second on Century Media Records, I Am Nemesis will either herald in a return to form or simply be another painted by numbers record from the Hattingen natives.

While their home country's metal scene might be best known for power metal and Rammstein, Caliban’s current sound is very American – chugging riffs, clean-vocal lead choruses, impassioned screams and a crystal clear production job. “We Are Many” and “The Bogeyman” kick off the album strongly, fusing all the previous mentioned aspects of their sound and create some impressively memorable tracks.

First single/video “Memorial” is also quite catchy, but it’s hard not to think that this kind of song has been written hundreds of times before. Its chorus falls on the wrong side of pop-punk for this reviewer’s ears – not to mention an almost cringe-worthy middle section, and the following Parkway Drive-styled beatdown passage.

For a relatively short album (12 songs, 45 minutes total), I Am Nemesis packs probably more filler than it should and begins to drag around the middle of the album. However, it picks up again with “Deadly Dream”, “Broadcast To Damnation” and the album’s best track “Dein R3ich”.

The vocal team of Andreas Dörner (screams/growls) and clean singer Denis Schmidt is solid as usual, but the fact that the ‘good cop, bad cop’ singing style in modern heavy music has become such an overused technique that it’s basically a cliché. But in Caliban's defense, they still can pull it off, it’s just not particular fresh nor exciting.

You have to give it up to Caliban for their unflinching devotion to their sound, but I Am Nemesis is basically a above-average, yet run of the mill record from one of the last bastions of metalcore. But there are some good moments on here, and despite the fact that many will probably write this album off before giving it any real chance, those who enjoy the modern metal/hardcore hybrid will lap up Caliban’s new record whole-heartedly.

(released February 28, 2012 on Century Media Records)



Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.