Review || Cane Hill - "Too Far Gone"

Cane Hill released their sophomore full length, "Too Far Gone", on January 19th through Rise Records. Consisting of ten electrifying tracks, it set the bar very high for the New Orleans quintet.

The album kicks off with the title track, whose crashing Nu metal (and somewhat Disturbed-ish?) riff sets the tone for the album. Up next is "Lord Of Flies". Touching on the groovier (and somewhat Slipknot-ish?) side, it follows a similar incendiary path as the first song. "Singing In The Swamp" and "Erase" casually flirts with a more industrial and ambient sound while nimbly maintaining an edgy character. As we reach the end of the first half of the album, "Why?" (also a personal fevorite) stands out with its grungy instrumentation and an exquisite melodic vocal hook courtesy of Elijah Witt. "It Follows" is the sixth track, bearing a more traditional Nu sound. This is not the case for "Scumbag" that follows. It's an unapologetic and facemelting tune with a very clear message on the final lyric; "you will never fucking rise, Nazi fucking scum". Well fucking done. Similarly, "Hateful" and "10 Cents" continue in the same ferocious spirit. "Too Far Gone" closes with "The End.". Now this is what I call nostalgia. This track could have been in the soundtrack of an underground movie like "The Queen Of The Damned" and that I can definitely appreciate.

I really need to give it to the Orleanians; they successfully resurrected a genre that gave a whole new meaning to the notion of 'oversaturated'. And they did it well. Mind you, these guys aren't veterans seeking to relive days of former glory, no. Cane Hill is a fairly new band that translated all their teenage influences into well-rounded musicianship and managed to keep the listener's full and undivided attention to the very end. The differenciation point between this album and the seminal bands that preceeded them is that the quintet doesn't rely on or employ the same pattern over and over hoping for the best. "Too Far Gone" offers diversity in the compositions, rendering some the absolute hymns of defiance and others hauntingly personal. This album is worth your attention. It may not make you fall in love anew with Nu metal but it is a statement that there's more to this sound than what we were taught to believe.

8/10

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