Sword and Sorcery Heavy Metal

This much-awaited mini album, hinted at for nearly half a decade, is the long-time-coming follow-up to 2002's excellent ...And Rome Shall Fall. Yes, 12 years later, and we finally get another taste of Howie Bentley's technical USPM brilliance. Although there are only two new, original songs, both are excellent and sufficiently long to satisfy fans who have eagerly anticipated this release since its announcement four or five years ago. I'm not sure when Howie wrote these two pieces, but they certainly sound as though they could've come out back in 1998, the year after Born of the Cauldron; indeed, these tracks bear more resemblance to that album than to the more straightforward, barbaric follow-up (which certainly isn't a bad thing). Also present here are a cover of Heavy Load's "Singing Swords" and a remaster of the 1994 demo Swords, Sorcery and Science. This is certainly a heavy slab of sword and sorcery heavy metal, so the title, while not terribly imaginative, is certainly apt.

As I said, the new tracks are fantastic, especially "Crom, Count the Dead," which, clocking in at over twelve minutes, is the most ambitious and most epic track Bentley has put out to date. Joining the band, as seems to be the tradition with every new Cauldron Born release, is vocalist Jim Mullis of Temple of Blood, who certainly does a good job here. I was a bit skeptical at first about how he would stand up to powerhouses Danny White and David Loudon, but he is easily on par with them, although I myself am partial to White's dramatic, psychotic wailing. Mullis is still something of a wailer, with a slightly more restrained but still sufficiently creepy and enthusiastic delivery that doesn't disappoint. "Crom, Count the Dead," as its length would suggest, is a multi-part epic with a fucking fantastic main riff and catchy chorus that is repeated multiple times but with various sections in between, similar in structure perhaps to Blind Guardian's "And Then There Was Silence." Really this is just a brilliant, dense and noodly power/doom masterpiece of the likes we've come to expect from Bentley.

"The Temple of Abomination," the other new track, is also great, if not quite of the same caliber as "Crom." It's a bit more straightforward and workman like, with a pretty simple main riff, slower pace, and less variation, but make no mistake, it still slays. In fact, its slower, more subtle nature makes it perhaps even more dense than the first track, as the flow is difficult to track until several listens have been had. "Singing Swords" brings us another great performance, although the song choice is a bit odd for a band as complex and arcane as Cauldron Born. The simple, somewhat mundane riffs sound out of place, as Heavy Load are about as simple as you can get, while not being terribly quality either. However, the intense harmony of the band paired with a great production and vocals make it decently enjoyable, if fairly forgettable.

The second half of the album reprises the 1994 demo with a much-needed remaster that significantly improves the tracks. We start with "Calling from the Crystal Tower," the only cut not rerecorded for Born of the Cauldron, which is certainly a treat with its fast, completely insane, borderline thrash riffing. The production is still sub-par for this sort of music but is certainly an improvement. Vocalist Christian Schulze does a passable, if uninteresting, job. His voice doesn't have much character or charisma, and while not a hindrance to the music, it doesn't help much, either. The song is quite good, though. The other three tracks were on Born of the Cauldron, and while it's interesting to hear a different take on them, Danny White's performance is far, far superior to Schulze's, not to mention the production being better. So while these songs are fun to listen to once or twice, I doubt you'll be spinning them incessantly. Still, with two fantastic new tracks, a decent cover, and a more listenable version of "Calling from the Crystal Tower," this little album is certainly worthwhile and a welcome addition to the Cauldron Born catalog. Now we just need the next Briton Rites, Howie!