Back From Hell
Artist: Caliban
Genre: Alternative, Metal, Metalcore, Rock
Record Label: Century Media Records
Release Date: 25 April 2025
Germany’s Caliban are bordering on 30 years in the game. With a scene as vast and dense as the European metalcore catalogue, it is a tough market. 3 years and a bassist removed from their last album, it’s time for a new offering, Back From Hell on April 25th. here’s what’s going on:
The use of an intro track is so-underrated in this genre, but ‘Resurgence’ is an excellent way to build tension right out of the gate. Whilst layering Andreas Dörner behind the orchestral elements, it then leads directly into the albums opening song ‘Guilt Trip’. This dropped in December, featuring Mental Cruelty’s Lukas Nicolai, being a major inciter for a live crowd. This track throws listeners in at the deep end, with the most noticeable part being the absolute battering on the bass drum from Patrick Grün. That then leads into the first taste fans would have had for the album from July, with ‘I Was a Happy Kid Once’. Aside from a title that hits right in the feels, this is a lot more like a classic Caliban track, very chugging and raw. Andreas swapping from gutturals and standard screams helps add layers to the track, as well as cleans for the chorus. This was probably the best/safest track the band could have put out to precursor the album. It both created intrigue right down to the ring out of the final “Save Me” lyric. That said, it also lured some of us into a false sense of security. Not long after this they dropped maybe two of their best songs of the last few albums with ‘Guilt Trip’ and ‘Echoes’.
When thinking of Caliban, guest features aren’t the strangest thing to imagine, they’ve done a fair share. Jonny from The Browning is also absolutely not the first vocalist you’d expect them to pick. But what a mix it makes for the title track ‘Back From Hell’. The group have seemingly gone for a new level of emotional exposure with their music. The dueling vocals from Dörner and McBee throughout creating this feeling of conflict, and strife. Given the track title, that shouldn’t be all that surprising to be fair. ‘Insomnia’ is the first track of the album that fans haven’t had a chance to listen to before the album dropped. This feels like the throwback to that older 200’s metalcore sound that the album needed. Caliban has said in press interviews that this is the sound they were trying to straddle, and ‘Insomnia’ does that well. ‘Dear Suffering’ is the latest single from the album, featuring Joe Badolato from Fit For An Autopsy. Having only dropped last month, it is probably the personal favourite from the record. Caliban have done amazing at choosing people that both oppose and compliment Andreas in vocal style. I need a Caliban/FFAA tour like I need air to breathe.
When discussing favourite track on the album, its neck and neck between ‘Guilt’, ‘Suffering’, and then this next track ‘Alte Seele’. Performed in German, as is tradition with one or two per record with Caliban, the title translates to “Old Soul”. This track has bags of potential in the live setting, and most probably won’t even know what the lyrics mean. The tone of Schmidt and Görtz on guitar is perfect, and Andreas finds a different gear when in his native tongue. There’s just that bit of gravel in the clean vocals on this track. Both that and his English offerings are excellent, as seen in ‘Overdrive’ that comes next. That said, the absolute star of this track is the breakdown that plays the song off for the last 20 seconds. There’s been high praise for the last two tracks for various reasons within their genre. So the electronic elements of ‘Infection’ came as a real swerve at this point in the record. It suffers a little in it’s placement on the record as it’s surrounded by some very strong material. But there is a chance it could crack the live set and be a banger.
‘Glass Cage’ and ‘Solace in Suffer’ feels like a very appropriate continuation of the very raw subject matter Caliban have tried to tackle with this record. A lot of the lyrical content is routes in the “I’s” and “Me’s”. It again feels very true to the 2000’s metalcore vibe with a strong clean chorus and a very “crab-core” latter half of both. When talking about versatility, Caliban are great in the sense that it can go from a very 2000’s vibe to a track like ‘Till Death Do Us Part’. The rhythm section from Denis Schmidt is ever present in this track as well and adds so much atmosphere. The penultimate track gave major ‘Killem All’ vibes from King 810, but at a much swifter pace as only Caliban can run at. This versus the vibe of final track ‘Echoes’ is the perfect way of a band flipping a switch to end it all on an album. ‘Echoes are furious, but hurting. Caliban have done great at every song feeling like a bit of a maelstrom. The way that the songs are mixed has this very swirling element to it and ‘Echoes’ feels like the climax and all of that falling down.Back From Hell is a huge, and potentially over-achieving effort from Caliban. The work on this new material is excellent to the point it’s hard to pick just a few to transfer live. Some of the songs work so well together that how can you break them up? Questions and concerns like that are a show of Caliban knowing exactly what they were doing with this record. They have done so much that they were already known for, and a lot of shapeshifting all in 13 tracks. Its a game of “wait and see” for which songs they’re going to kick ass with on this next huge tour, starting April 27th. Back From Hell is out April 25th from Century Media Records, and is available in physical copies and on all good streaming platforms.