CALIBAN • I Am Nemesis • LP

Arising Empire

“You gotta be fucking kiddin’ me!?“ – is the simple, but striking first line of “We Are The Many”, the opening track of CALIBAN’s new opus “I Am Nemesis”. The question is running like a common thread through their eighth studio album that is dealing with the downsides of humanity: loss and fear, greed and avarice, lies and deceit, madness and loss of control.

Once again CALIBAN (who form the indestructible spearhead of German Modern Metal together with their labelmates Heaven Shall Burn) are not shying away from serious topics. CALIBAN have always devoted themselves to the wild, chaotic and things you cannot control in our world. Where others flinch, they call a spade a spade. If the wayward son out of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” had listened to music CALIBAN probably would have been at the top of his playlist.

”The lyrical concept of the album is a continuation of our last record ’Say Hello To Tragedy’“, says vocalist Andy Dörner. “It is socio-critical and points out things that go wrong in the world, at least in our eyes.“ Examples are how people get more and more dull by consuming anything the media is presenting them (“Broadcast To Damnation“), loss (“Memorial“), how people get dissed via the internet (“Modern Warfare“), fascism (“Dein R3.ich“) or the exploitation of our planet using the example of oil (“Edge Of Black“). Within the aforementioned context a title such as “The Bogeyman“ does not require any additional explanation.

It’s not an empty phrase to say that CALIBAN have never been as versatile as they are on “I Am Nemesis“: They repeatedly slow down their growling metal storm at the right moment, mix it up with clean vocals (without overusing that stylistic device), utilize gang shouts here and keyboard parts there (delivered by Marcel Neumann from German deathcore destroyers We Butter The Bread With Butter for the songs „The Bogeyman“ snd „Dein R3.ich“). Moreover they always find the perfect balance between unrestrained aggression and catchy melodies. To top it all off, Mitch Lucker of Suicide Silence, Heaven Shall Burn’s Marcus Bischoff and the guys from As Blood Runs Black contribute some beastly guest vocals.

Lead guitarist Marc Görtz describes their sonic approach to “I Am Nemesis“ as follows: “The album breaks new soil without forgetting our roots. There are new influences such as shimmering guitar melodies and technical grooves with Meshuggah-like heaviness. In some songs we added an additional few pounds to make them even heavier. We wanted to record a very diverse album that has several fast tracks but also some slow and brutal mosh songs.“

From the first song writing to the final twists it took CALIBAN ten months to forge “I Am Nemesis“ which is more than twice as long as previous albums. Their perfectionist and intense way of working definitely paid off, so the German quintet is more than happy with the final result: “It was important to us to have an elaborate album without any fillers. Additionally the sound of the album is the best we’ve ever had by far: It is heavy and brutal without being chaotic“, summarizes Görtz. The guitarist himself co-produced the album together with Benny Richter while “I Am Nemesis” was mixed by Klaus Scheuermann in the B.B. Serious Studio in Berlin and mastered by J. Oliver Wiebe in Hamburg’s Nullzweistudios.

After 15 years in the music business CALIBAN are stronger than ever. Around the release of the album the German metal berserkers will embark on a massive European tour that should lay Europe’s metal bastions to ashes.

This edition also features a bonus track, the band putting their own spin on the track "Pulse", originally by the Japanese outfit Mad Capsule Markets, previously only available on the Japanese edition of the album.