Style: Progressive death metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Death, Augury, Morbid Angel
Review by: Zach
Country: Switzerland
Release date: 9 August, 2023
Do you remember that scene at the end of The Phantom Menace, where Palpatine says to Anakin “We will watch your career with great interest”? You as the audience know damn well this little kid is going to grow up to be Darth Vader and if you paid even the slightest bit of attention to George Lucas’s lack of subtlety, you’d know this old man is The Emperor. But, from the characters’ perspectives, they’ve got no idea this kid who says “yippee!” will grow up to be a feared cyborg space samurai. In my career as a prog metal reviewer, this is really all I want. My signing off motto is basically a challenge to any band that makes a mediocre album to make a fucking masterpiece next time. I want a band that scares the shit out of me with the quality difference between albums.
But I’ve never reviewed an Uncaved album. Well, sort of. See, in getting this promo, and Sam looming over me saying “review more tech death, nerd”, I decided to check out their Bandcamp page only to find a familiar name. Felicien Burkard, the bassist of today’s prospect, is one of the brains behind Kerberos, a band whose debut album I found…well, mediocre. Furthermore, the little I’ve heard of Uncaved’s debut sounded pretty good in all the five minutes I spent on a passive listen. So, how does Burkard’s other band stack up?
Certainly an improvement from the 5/10 score I gave Kerberos. This is, by all means, a fine prog death debut. The opener, ‘Nocturni Lumimis’ really sets the stage for what this album is going to be. This is more Death flavor with a touch of Morbid Angel sprinkles on top than Obscura flavor. In English, that means less focus on insane technicality and more on nasty, chuggy riffs. There are the rare breaks of batshit insane technicality, like the Decapitated-esque trem picking in ‘Scorner’, but this is very much a riff-focused project.
But with a riff focused project, you better make sure they’re good. There are indeed riffs on Uncaved, and they’re played well, but nothing stood out to me on countless listens. I spent far more time with this album than usual, trying my hardest to find anything that wasn’t mediocre. Even Burkard’s bass, the rare times it appears, is standard, but talented enough, tech death noodly bass.
There are a few saving graces on this album that keep the score slightly higher than it probably deserves. “Thus I Demand the Abolition of God” is easily the best song on this album, and one of the shortest at slightly under four minutes (not counting the interlude), and standing on its own, it’s quite good. Starting with an operatic intro that almost reminds me of Sovereigns Unknown-era Augury, and the blistering pace almost makes me think this album could be much better had Uncaved focused on making shorter songs.
See, the riffs on this song aren’t incredible, but they’re a bit of fun, and the fun’s only intensified by their use of mixed vocals. The bass break near the end further solidifies my Augury comparisons, and it’s a bit of that batshit insanity that makes tech death good in the first place. Dogmatorraites is tech-death by the numbers without an ounce of bravery to do something different. Tech death hasn’t become worse over the years, more that it’s become complacent in a formula of its own making. You obviously need some talent to play this stuff, but the reason Archspire, First Fragment, and Alkaloid (Numen is incredible, isn’t it?) reign supreme is their drive to continuously flirt with other sounds and influences beyond death metal.
Uncaved have all the pieces together to make a really good album if they didn’t seem so stuck in this rut. With a debut, I’m probably going to be a bit more lenient than I should, but right now, they’re another band for the tech sludge pile. If they can figure out some way to break through with all this unused talent, good for them. But go a little crazier for the next release. I’ll have more respect for a band that goes against the grain and fails than one who makes baby’s first tech-death album.
Recommended tracks: Scorner, Thus I Demand the Abolition of God
You may also like: Kerberos, Skyglow
Final verdict: 6/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Label: Independent
Uncaved is:
– Felicien Burkard (Bass, vocals)
– Gregor Bucher (drums)
– Ralph P. Huber (Guitar, vocals)
– Samuel Weiderkehr (Guitars, vocals)
– Simon Frederik Piringer (vocals)
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