Alchemy by Caveat
Alchemy is the fourth full-length album from veteran Canadian progressive headbangers Caveat, and it’s an exhausting listen. But in a good way. The band often draws comparisons to Opeth, Cynic and Meshuggah, and that’s fair. Alchemy opens with “Silver,” a relentless sonic assault of massive riffage that showcases Amanda Marie Bourdon’s powerful vocals with guitarist Greg Musgrave’s vicious growls. His gruffness injects several songs here, as do Bourdon’s keyboards. At times, she sings like a pissed-off Pat Benatar, and the rest of this quintet—Joe Sikorski on guitars, Matt Petti on bass and Casey Rogers on drums — matches her fury.
Of the seven songs here, only one clocks in at shorter than six minutes. Some of the lyrics get lost in the mix, and Caveat never slows things down long enough to give listeners a breather (although parts of “Black Mirror” and “Ghost” come close). Still, this is an engaging listen for metal fans who don’t mind straying beyond the genre’s increasingly blurry lines.
