Slubberdegullion

CAULDRON BLACK RAM
Slubberdegullion

I meant to write a review of this great album when it first came out but then it took me a little while to actually buy it.  So it came out in March 2010 but I didn't get around to actually purchasing this little beauty until the end of August or thereabouts.  This in itself is a little weird as this was actually one of my most anticipated releases of that year.  I never really download music because I reckon that a "preview" like this is going to somewhat spoil the real product when it actually comes to be in your hands.....  So when I eventually managed to order and acquire the CD almost six months ago  it didn't leave my CD player for a couple of weeks and even then there were new things to discover with each listen.  The first thing that springs to mind when one hears Cauldron Black Ram is that the Australian scene is one of the most original ones in the world of Metal.  There are many bands there, they all sound different, and very few of them sound like any other bands on the planet.  Think of Sadistik Exekution, Martire, Destroyer666, StarGazer or Portal just by way of some examples and anyone with ears to hear will have to admit that Australia boasts one of the most diverse and original Metal scenes on Earth.  Cauldron Black Ram fit right in there.  One band that springs to mind as a handy comparison is Grand Belial's Key: some of the riffs could have sprung from Gelal's musical mind.  This is no bad thing - his political views notwithstanding, Gelal is a musical heavyweight and his compositions demand respect.  However, Cauldron Black Ram can only be compared rather fleetingly to GBK and have a style very much their own. 

Slubberdegullion continues where Skulduggery (2004) left off and we are treated to a handful of mid-paced songs featuring some very chunky guitars and an all-round excellent production with every instrument nice and audible.  There are numerous acoustic interludes with plenty of little sound effects like knives being sharpened, whispers, falling plates and chains and other weird and wonderful sounds to draw the listener into a nightmarish world of imps, goblins, whores, villains, seadogs and devils.  Each song is like a little story, some appear like spells or invocations of unclean spirits, others like tales from an insane pirate's journal uttered by possessed, hateful and completely unhinged mental patients while the guitars weave riffs that alternate between palm-muted chugging and the hum and buzz of thousands of angry hornets while always staying catchy and somehow melodic.

The CD and LP versions of the album are available from THE CAVE
run by one of the members of the band but some searching will bring up some other distros in America and Europe that carry it.