Russell HughesCane Hill – Too Far Gone (Rise Records)
Genre: Metalcore
For centuries creatives have been seeking meaning and enlightenment through illicit means. Cane Hill are the latest to tread that past.
While Too Far Gone might not be the child of mind altering substances, it certainly draws on a time when their music was and builds on their fire-and-fury smash debut Smile.
After scooping award after award in 2015 for a record that was produced with a hint of recklessness, Cane Hill settled down and took their time over the next – spending six months in the studio.
But that initial sound that made them so compelling to listen to hasn’t been lost, it’s just been crafted with more care. Too Far Gone is a masterstroke and an absolute gem of a song that bursts out the album with all the confidence of a big dick in a locker room.
Lord of Flies is as dark as you’d think from a song that borrows its name from a book about abandoned schoolkids who murderously turn on each other, which is apt because it’s all about the duplicitous nature of humanity. Strong stuff.
Jack Parow continues to show his everlasting class on Afrika 4 Beginners
And the ominous feel of the record doesn’t end there. Erased is the most emotionally charged song the band have written yet and is about the Alzheimer’s that claimed drummer Devin Clark’s grandfather.
Whatever the four-piece are writing about you can be sure it’s accompanied by a backdrop of pounding drums and pulsating guitar that’ll leave metal heads drooling at the thought of seeing them on the road.
Wrapping up with tune after tune in It Follows, Scumbag, Hateful, 10c and The End Cane Hill go from strength to strength.
Second album are notoriously hard but Cane Hill have cracked it. They’ve built on such a solid start without losing their mojo, and that isn’t easy.
RUSHONROCK RATED: 10/10 Top of the Hill