Hailing from Allstone (MA), progressive metal outfit Caricature released their debut full-length album “The Sound Of One Man’s World Collapsing” after building really solid underground expectations around the release. Trust me, we have a good amount of amazing packed in here.
The album is based on well built ambiance, supported by a mainly melodic approach on modern progressive metal. The melodies are enforced by incredibly energetic and creative guitar work delivered by the band’s mastermind Joseph Spiller, who wrote and produced all of the songs, performed guitars, all vocals, piano, keyboards and studio bass, mastered and engineered most of the album and even designed the cover artwork.
“The Sound Of One Man’s World Collapsing” features re-recorded album versions of a bunch of songs featured on the band’s previous EPs. One of them, called “Monuments” follows the intro track and immediately leads us into dramatic ambiance. It’s one of the darkest selections on the whole album, showing us from the first moment the creative possibilities of this band. Heavy and groovy riffage and djenty breakdowns that never look banal, a dramatic chorus and an harsh singing in the rest of the song makes this first full track one of the heaviest in the album. The approach changes with the following track, which was the first official single taken from this album. “A Long Term Illness” shows even more of the amazing guitar work that the band is capable of delivering. This track has a much more melodic approach than the previous one, both in vocals and general atmosphere. But likewise, it’s still a dramatic and energetic track, especially in its chorus. These songs give the listener chance to really appreciate the drumming too, which is another well-produced element of Caricature’s music, giving it the ultimate push. More previously released songs will appear on the album. “Saviours”, “Savious II” and “Brith By Sleep” for example.
But the most interesting songs are new, proving this band’s continuous improvement. “Burning Damnation Down” features a memorable vocal performance, as well as “Colorless Sky”. Especially the second one features heavy, rumbling riffage, being another of the band’s heaviest songs. “Letter To H” is another remarkable track. It’s a piano ballad with a touching vocal performance, resulting to be one of the most touching passages on the album.
I started to follow this band after “A Long Term Illness” was released, enjoying that track more than their older stuff, so I started to look forward to their newest material. In fact the new tracks are, in my opinion, the best of their work, showing a more mature and interesting take on this over-played genre. Unfortunately there are just a few of them. The opening and the closing tracks, as well as the 10th track “Refrain” are just atmospheric passages, definitely good for the album’s concept and ambiance, but they’re not full, new songs.
This is still among the best unsigned releases of the year so far. It shows the world that this underrated band has what it takes to be one of the big names in the future. This is a band that every fan of Periphery and similar acts should check out.
PS: The whole album is available for streaming on their Bandcamp, where you can also purchase it for only $6.99!
– MATTIA
