Album Review: Cane Hill – Too Far Gone

Cane Hill – Too Far Gone

Release Date: 19th January 2018

Label: Rise Records

You remember ‘that band that sound like Slipknot’ from a few years ago? No not King810, these were the ones we could actually bare to listen to for more than 2 minutes. Anyway, Cane Hill is what they were called and they’re back with album number two, Too Far Gone. An album that sets out it’s stall and then smashes it to pieces like a veg stall in a Bond movie.

It all kicks off title with a track that is exactly what you’d expect to happen if Marilyn Manson and Corey Taylor fucked and probably not too far away from what you were expecting from Cane Hill in 2018. Listening to their previous records it would have been easy for them to have continued along the high intensity, all out Nu-Metal onslaught on the ears but Too Far Gone, as an album if not a single, has more layers to it than the previous album and EP put together.

‘Singing In The Swamp’ is the prime example of this. Bordering more on the side of being a heavy alt-rock track it feels like four and a half minutes of ‘look what we can do’ and it works so well. The softer lead vocals and the melodic backing vocals contrasting with the more sparingly used screams over what is still a powerful riff, but not just due to its heaviness as is the case elsewhere here. This track feels like it could be a glimpse towards a new, more mature, Cane Hill.

‘Erased’ backs this up straight after with it’s softer vocals during the verses and contrasting choruses. Again it’s a step in a slightly different direction for Cane Hill and the catchiness of the chorus is refreshing. By the time ‘Why’ comes around it’s like listening to a new band. The midway point of the album has a bass line straight out of 2001 but the structure of the strong feels much more contemporary.

‘It Follows’ goes back to the heavier riff and vocals and is well placed after two tracks on the softer end of this scale. The chorus is still catchy as hell and I can see it being blasted out and sung along to at Download or Bloodstock. By the time ’10 Cents’ hits it’s easy to forget any preconceptions you had of the band, though this would be a bad time to ponder on this as this track has the most in common with previous releases.

Too Far Gone in it’s entirety may be just that for some of Cane Hill’s Nu Metal elite fans. Those that are stuck in the early noughties may not be able to get even this small hop out of their comfort zone. For those that are will to make the leap of faith the rewards are rich. At 10 tracks the album is the perfect length and with vocals that stretch from Slipknot to Alice In Chains in style there’s plenty to offer for anyone that got into metal in the past three decades.

Recommended Tracks: Lord Of Flies & Singing In The Swamp

Rating: 9/10

Keep up with the band on Facebook, Twitter and their own website.