Caliban - Elements

The eleventh LP from the prolific German outfit Caliban, Elements, is sadly, largely another hefty batch of generic, post-hardcore-influenced metalcore. Complete with a few too many unsavory uses of god-cop-bad-cop vocal trade-offs, cliché metalcore breakdowns, and gang vocal passages, Caliban come through with hardly anything memorable on this album. “Delusion” and “Carry On” are the only two highlights for me, with the band actually sounding alive through the somewhat nu/alternative post-hardcore metal stylings of the two tracks. “Delusion” and “Carry On” are lucky to have such big, anthemic, sing-along choruses and that sound like they have some serious passion behind them. But for the vast majority of the album, the group plays into their home genre’s and their own typicalities, with every attempt to branch out a tiny bit unfortunately sounding much like what many other bands before have done a hundred times over. Caliban are clearly content in their comfort zone, where they unfortunately seem doomed to repeat themselves unimaginatively until something jolts them out of it or until they burn themselves out.