Review by Xephyr for Cauldron Born - Born of the Cauldron (1997)

Expectation Versus Reality

Born of the Cauldron is a cautionary tale of potential, experimentation, and pushing boundaries. Power Metal, especially US Power Metal, has a tendency to be pretty rigid when it comes to songwriting, riff structure, and overall presentation, leaving smaller, lesser known bands engulfed by the shadows of the classic monoliths like Blind Guardian, Iced Earth, or even groups like Riot. Cauldron Born, hailing from Atlanta, came onto the scene towards the tail end of the initial Power Metal boom with a plan of attempting to distinguish themselves from the rest of the pack in a spectacular fashion. In many ways Born of the Cauldron is more Progressive Metal than Power Metal, with some of the only things keeping it within the realms of Power Metal being the vocal style, the overall tone and mixing of the guitar and bass, and the structure of the choruses. The rest of the album is a flurry of technical songwriting that is overly complex in a way that initially grabbed my attention in a very positive way. It's been a long time since I've heard Power Metal that tried something new and different with Cauldron Born's approach to cram as many transitions and convoluted riffs into every square inch of every song. After some initial listens my opinions of Born of the Cauldron were pretty high since the ballsy, overly technical approach was something I respected and was enjoying. 

The overall sound of Cauldron Born sits between a more neoclassical, shreddy kind of Metal and the more traditional US Power Metal sound, one of its defining qualities being the very present bass riffs that support the twists and turns of the guitar as it moves from riff to riff. The vocals follow a pretty standard Power Metal shriek that offer a ton of variety in both range and melody as they're pretty independent from the rest of the band. Most of the tracks off of Born of the Cauldron are high octane riff-fests filled with erratic ideas and aspirational transitions that hang on by a thread most of the time. Tracks like "Imprisoned With the Pharaohs" and "Unholy Sanctuary" slow down a bit and present some more standard chug focused rhythms that let the bass shine through. Although Born of the Cauldron is an extremely dense album I found myself enamored with quite a few standout riffs on "The Final Incantation/In the Dreaming City", "Crusader", and "In Fate's Eye a King", not to mention most of these songs having good hooks for the choruses. As I kept going back to Born of the Cauldron and analyzing it more though, cracks in the armor began to really shine through. 

Since Cauldron Born obviously tried to prioritize complex songwriting, it became more and more clear that they bit off way more than they could handle for their debut album. As a non-musician it's hard for me to know whether the band members just weren't adept enough to play their material, or if the material they wrote is just that difficult or complicated. After my first few listens I thought that I was just missing the grooves of some of the riffs, but I think it's objectively clear that there are major mistakes in the performances through and through. It's put me in a really strange spot because I still think I genuinely enjoy a lot of these songs, but the versions of them that would get stuck in my head were very different than what was on the album. I'd be humming the chorus of "Crusader" or "The Sword's Lament" randomly all day, but quickly realized that I was removing all the blemishes from the actual recording in my head. Since Cauldron Born litter their songs with as many transitions and melody shifts as they can, having tight and clean performances is imperative, but that just isn't what's there on this album. The kick drum is pushed far forward in the mix and is sharp, clear, and sadly detrimental because it highlights just how rough of a time their drummer has keeping steady, consistent time. Couple that with complex guitar and bass riffs that fall in and out of time due to how strangely their structured and a vocalist that is off doing his own thing, Born of the Cauldron ends up sounding like more and more of a mess the closer you listen. 

I truly believe that this debut would be one of my favorite Power Metal releases if the performances weren't so marred because there's some awesome stuff going on here. I respect Cauldron Born for having the gusto to release something that's much above the band's skill level at the time because it was certainly able to grip me at first given its uniqueness. If some tweaks were made and a bit more practice was done I could only imagine how great Born of the Cauldron could have sounded, but I made an initial rating mistake of what I thought the album was rather than what it actually was. In the end I always want bands to aspire to break free from certain formulas that keep certain Metal genres pretty generic, but this one taught me that an immaculate performance isn't always a given for studio albums.