Cold Steel for the Necromancer

My very first review here was for Cauldron Born’s 2002 album ...And Rome Shall Fall, and I never, ever would have guessed that twenty years would pass between that album and the proper third full-length by this band, nor that I would have a small part in getting it released. After a period of inactivity, Cauldron Born have been a going concern again, with the Sword and Sorcery Heavy Metal EP in 2014, and last year’s re-recording of Rome, titled Legacy of Atlantean Kings. Now, at long last, we get a full-length album of all-new material.

It was worth the wait. Funded by a very successful crowdfunding campaign, Cold Steel for the Necromancer is everything we could have wanted in a Cauldron Born album. With a lineup consisting of 3/5 of the classic crew, this sounds exactly like what I wanted. Howie Bentley has such a distinct style that nobody else can really sound like him, and this is packed with his galloping, complex riffs and the best leads he has ever ripped out. Not to say that new guitar player Alex Parra does not impress, because he does. Mike LePond (of Symphony X, Death Dealer, Eternity’s End and a dozen other bands) provides session bass, and I have to single out singer Matthew Knight for his outstanding performance here. He proved himself on Atlantean Kings, but his work here just blows that entirely out of the water. The man absolutely wails.

The songwriting is the star here, as every song is that trademark Cauldron Born style: complex without being proggy, technical without being too showy, and heavy as a motherfucking truck through your house. Every song packs in a lot of parts, a lot of twists and turns. Highlights include the title track, the crushing "Steel Juggernaut," and the moody, epic closing track "A Grim Homecoming/Phantom-Clad Rider of the Cosmic Ice." If you like heavy, crunching, pure steel Heavy Metal, then this is everything you want, trust me.