A musician once remarked that the spaces between notes matter most in a song. Another quipped that sometimes mistakes make for the best music. Those sentiments seem to be the crux behind Chained To The Night, the debut full-length from Toronto, ON's Cauldron. As the bastion of old school NWOBHM-meets-pre-thrash girth unfolds, it becomes the nexus of such insight. Liberated by the same purity, sincerity and occasional inability that has fostered metallic classics, including the first three Venom albums, Reign In Blood, Kill 'Em All and more, the record is lashed to the straightforward beats, tinny, albeit crunchy, guitars and soaring vocals of early Banzai Records releases. This power trio proudly wave the flag of early to mid-'80s metal and it works incredibly well. Tracks such as "Chained Up In Chains" and "Young And Hungry" boast tongue-in-cheek wryness but also a loose, relentless groove and captivating rhythmic drive. Furthermore, Cauldron embrace the reality of their limitations, allowing very real performances to shine, blemishes and all. In an era where most bands overproduce, auto-tune and correct with computers, thereby resulting in soulless, unmemorable albums, it's refreshing and inspiring to hear Cauldron lay down these nine infectiously upbeat blasts with absolute honesty and integrity.
You said Chained To The Nite is a reaction to weak metal?
Bassist/vocalist Jason Decay: [The album] is us making the kind of record we want to hear, to the best of our abilities. When someone slags the production, it's like, yeah, you obviously don't get it. We didn't quantize the drums, tune the vocals or use a click [track]. We didn't want to make a fake record. We wanted a real-sounding, human record that's only as good as we are, not have ProTools playing the shit out of us. That would be easy and boring.
What's the difference between real metal and crap?
Real metal doesn't blow in the winds of trend. It stands hard and true and fights 'til those winds come around in its favour again.
Do you hope the album incites change?
I don't think our record has the power to do much alone but we are finding many like-minded bands and people. We're uniting and it's making more people aware that, hey, this really is good music and a fun way of life whether it's cool or not. I think our record makes people feel proud to have long hair and say, "fuck off" to what they're told to like.
(Earache)You said Chained To The Nite is a reaction to weak metal?
Bassist/vocalist Jason Decay: [The album] is us making the kind of record we want to hear, to the best of our abilities. When someone slags the production, it's like, yeah, you obviously don't get it. We didn't quantize the drums, tune the vocals or use a click [track]. We didn't want to make a fake record. We wanted a real-sounding, human record that's only as good as we are, not have ProTools playing the shit out of us. That would be easy and boring.
What's the difference between real metal and crap?
Real metal doesn't blow in the winds of trend. It stands hard and true and fights 'til those winds come around in its favour again.
Do you hope the album incites change?
I don't think our record has the power to do much alone but we are finding many like-minded bands and people. We're uniting and it's making more people aware that, hey, this really is good music and a fun way of life whether it's cool or not. I think our record makes people feel proud to have long hair and say, "fuck off" to what they're told to like.