Photo by Moritz Hartmann / Story by Kurt Orzeck
Caliban’s 13th album, the recently released Back From Hell, is a pummeling piece of ear-ringing fury in which the longstanding German squad recaptures the exhilaration they exhibited upon their inception in Essen in 1997. Over the ensuing years, Caliban have proven to be arguably the most reliable metalcore band in their space, never letting more than three years go by without busting out a brand-new batch of brutal bangers. Among the variables in their formula of stability - the enduring band has partnered with Century Media for every one of their records since 2007.
One of Caliban’s secret weapons ensuring the band’s consistency with a close-knit unit of founding members in lead vocalist Andreas Dörner and lead guitarist Marc Görtz along with longtime rhythm guitarist Denis Schmidt and drummer Patrick Grün all having remained faithful members of the band for at least 20 years each. The only exception, bassist/clean vocalist Kenneth Iain Duncan, who Caliban brought into the fold last year - enlisting some new energy among the ranks.
Nevertheless, Caliban will be the first to concede their catalog is less consistent then their reputation would suggest. I Am Nemesis (2012), Shadow Hearts (2003), and Ghost Empire (2014) are essential listening in any devoted metalcore fan’s library. But a few of the band’s other releases—particularly 2018’s Elements and 2022’s Dystopia—weren’t as well received even by the band’s ardent followers.
Back From Hell.
With that in mind, it was refreshing to hear Görtz be especially candid, agreeing with many fans’ critical assessment - the kind of feedback that prompted Caliban to strive not to repeat the missteps of Dystopia in particular. Aficionados will be pleased to know that the band succeeded in outdoing their previous effort, with a renewed focus on technique and craft, as opposed to cranking out a few radio-friendly singles and fleshing out their subsequent release with some merely satisfactory additional album tracks.
In a cultural age when focusing on the past instead of the present is discouraged, truth is an increasingly high-prized commodity and rarely spoken in public, and bands are taking on self-promotional duties more than ever before, Görtz admitted without any prompting that Caliban weren’t pleased with Dystopia and strove to make Back From Hellall that much stronger.
“For my own part, I was really unhappy with Dystopia after we finished making it,” confesses Görtz—who, along with Dörner, are Caliban’s creative crux. “It was written in strange times, during COVID, so we weren't hanging out together, I wasn't there with the vocal production, and we changed things back and forth. For me, Dystopia has no character, no soul. I think the whole band agrees that it’s not our favorite album. It wasn’t worthy of Caliban.”
In that sense, Back From Hell is indeed a very apt title, if one interprets the phrase as Caliban rebounding after hitting their artistic nadir. That certainly was the belief expressed by Görtz when our conversation shifted to the new record, the lead singles of which are the title track (feat. The Browning), "I Was a Happy Kid Once,” “Echoes,” “Guilt Trip” (feat. Mental Cruelty) and “Dear Suffering” (feat. Fit for an Autopsy).
"The amount of work we put into Back From Hell is similar to the amount of work which went into I Am Nemesis,” he attested. “I hit a spot where I decided something had to change, and I wanted to spice up the way we write songs. I had the same feeling when I was writing I Am Nemesis.
"We wanted to treat every single song [on Back From Hell] as if it were a potential single,” Görtz continued. “My favorite track isn’t even one of the five singles that’s already out. To us, there's no filler song [on this record]. They all have a meaning, they all have a purpose, they all flow right. We worked tirelessly on it.”
Continuing to speak his mind freely, Görtz added—again, unprompted—“Our record label hated us because we delayed a lot of deadlines. I remember we delivered the album [at one point], and then two days later, I woke up, and I was like, ’It's not finished.’ I then called our two singers, and one of them opened up to me and said, ‘I'm really relieved you said that. I was afraid to say anything, but I feel the same way.’”
According to Görtz, Century Media eventually came around and gave Caliban an additional three weeks to polish up Back From Hell with additional mixing and tinkering with the keyboard parts. But get this: After the band exhausted those three weeks, they asked for another 21 days and—one’s gotta give big ups to Century Media for this—the label granted the band’s final request.
“I feel very sorry about it,” Görtz confided. “They had to deal with a lot of stress, and it wasn’t easy for them to rework the [promotional] timeline. But, in the end, I was really happy that they gave us the time. They understood that this is a very important album for us. When you consider the whole experience of making the record and what came before it … that’s why we named it Back From Hell.”
The dedication that Caliban put into their new record pays off in the final product and reflects a band that refuses to mail in new material merely for the sake of touring. After setting out to regain the magic of their best LPs and gifting fans with a bulletproof record that successfully reflects a band that did so in both songwriting and execution, mission accomplished.
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Back From Hell is now available from Century Media Records. Order the album - HERE
Caliban is out on their Back From Hell EU tour closing out May 18th in Cologne, DE. The band has tapped In Hearts Wake, Cabal and Assemble the Chariots for support. A complete list of remaining dates and cities can be found below.
