Year Of Metal #062: Cauldron Born - …And Rome Shall Fall
Here’s a minor mystery for entry 62. Cauldron Born are an American power metal act, and this 2002 release is their second full length record. Aside from the names of the band members, that’s just about all I can tell you about this lot. I can’t even find the list I discovered them on when trying to reverse engineer the search I’d have done at the start of the year to find material for this project. A Reddit thread suggests they’re crowd funding their releases of late (with some success - those who dig them seem to really dig them), but that’s about your lot.
With all that in mind, I’d love to be able to say they’re some incredible hidden gem on the metal scene, an act whose cult I’m thrilled to join. Alas, it’s not to be. The sticking point is the power metal of it all. I’m just not into the swords and sorcery, more is more is more approach to the goofy side of the genre, and this is some of the most unrestrained material I’ve heard so far. The record was put out on an Italian label which, to its credit, appears to still be operating, so I imagine Cauldron Born were free to do whatever they fancied in the studio.
To be fair, the compositions are pretty heavyweight as far as the subgenre goes. The guitars on opener “By This Axe I Rule” have colossal crunch, even if the drums (especially the snare) sound a bit tinpot. The tune actually lives up to its epic intentions by the time we reach the outro, which slows down and opens up nicely. The wailing singing’s not to my taste, but again that’s how the cookie crumbles when you’re listening to power metal. Is it Bruce Dickinson that all these guys are ultimately emulating? I’m not sure.
The title track that follows is actually pretty cool. Again their saving grace is the fact that they play this stuff with quite a lot more grit and brutality then some of their more playful contemporaries. The dunderheaded thrash riff, played in tandem with the charging kick drum, gives the song a lot of guts, and when vocalist David Loudon keeps to a lower register, he’s got a lot of character to his voice. There are passages when he’s chopping through fast stretches of lyrics where he sounds a lot less performative and a lot more interesting and bizarre. This is easily the best track, despite - or maybe because of - the fact they’re doing a lot of stuff that I think would make a serious producer despair. At one point Shawn Kascak goes into business for himself on the bass, ploughing into a solo of sorts while guitarist Howie Bentley is already playing a solo. It’s chaos but it’s good fun.
The Cauldron Born lot blow their load early doors, unfortunately. There’s not a whole lot of interest on the rest of the record. I quite like “Blood Bath In The Arena” - it has a catchy chorus and a pretty cool solo, but it’s functional power metal rather than the genuine strangeness of the first two songs or (better still) something actually good. It’s an endurance test getting through the back half, particularly when you reach the muddy “Dragon Throne”. The YouTube description (I can’t find it on Spotify) alludes to production issues; while it doesn’t go into detail, this one in particular is on the mushy side.
These dudes are still plugging away, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all to find out they had a fervent following on the continent. If the power metal vibe is to your taste, I could certainly see the extra weight behind some of these tracks doing the business for you. I’m just not sure I’m in that place at this time in my life. Cool logo though.
