Ελληνικά
Genre: Power
Country: U.S.A.
Label:Echoes of Crom Records
Year:2022
I was quite shocked and filled with extreme happiness when Howie Bentley informed me that he would would resurrect his spiritual CAULDRON BORN child out from the ashes.
The comeback from the dead featured three members from the classic 1994 line up (Howie Bentley on guitars, Bill Parsons on drums and Shawn Kascak on bass) plus the mighty voice of ETERNAL WINTER, the mighty Matthew Knight himself.
“Legacy of Atlantean Kings” which was actually a re-recorded and re-arranged edition of the “…And Rome Shall Fall” classic, was the first result of the band’s resurrection.
The second and most important chapter on this new era of the cauldron is the “Cold Steel for the Necromancer” new album. A release that brings the band back where it belongs: to the pantheon of Epic / Power Metal.
I will put it straight and simple: The album is a masterpiece. Through this release Howie Bentley highlights the CAULDRON BORN vision, a vision that has not changed since day one of the band’s existence: The release of inspired, complex and the same time so into the point, Epic / Power Metal totally connected and inspired by Sword & Sorcery literature.
Bentley delivers some of the most outstanding guitar themes of his entire career in this album. The lead guitars parts and the solos are fantastic. Alex Parra has also delivered some great guitar work. The songs are based on adventurous structures, emphasized by this solid and technical rhythm section: Bill Parsons have delivered some excellent drumming and the same goes for the amazing bass performance of the one and only Mike LePond (SYMPHONY X, HEATHENS RAGE etc), who recorded bass on the new album. Oh boy, this is a total blast.
Of course I have to make a special reference, to the excellent vocal performance of Matthew Knight. Please allow me to point that the vocals are one of the strongest features on the new album.
I would not refer to any song in particular simply because this is an album to be listened on its entirety. I have already placed “The Cold Steel of the Necromancer” next to the CAULDRON BORN classics, and I consider it as a classic in the Epic / Power realm of our age.
Bands like CAULDRON BORN and artists like Howie Bentley is the main reason that publications like FORGOTTEN SCROLL exist. Well yes dudes. This is the underground. To be locked on your room full of records and books enjoying some inspired and complex Steel, shaping your own pictures through the deep, epic lyrics, as you try to discover the hidden meanings or create your own!
All hail CAULDRON BORN!
