Cavurn — Rehearsal
Hailing from Washington State, this quartet brands themselves as "caveman death metal." While at first glance, that would signify a cop out for a thuggish, inept playing style and a poorly recorded release. However, once the reels of Cavurn's tape begin to spin, their self branded style of death becomes clear. Heavy, low, and anything but primitive, Rehearsal deftly mixes sluggish, grim doom with fast, vile death metal. While not playing like cavemen, Cavurn definitely channels primitive fears and the essence and thunderous echoes of life in a prehistoric past. Three thundering tracks coming in at a bit over twenty minutes, this rehearsal sounds better than many bands' official releases. The slight bit of lo-fi is to be expected, and adds greatly to the cavernous (cavurnous?) feel. Unlike the purposely lacking clarity of many black metal releases, this is the right amount to both match the "caveman" ethos and the rehearsal style of recording. Heavy, plodding riffs match up with, slow, deliberate drums to build up a doom-laden atmosphere, and horrific vocals hammer home the grim, brooding terror on display. If this weren't enough, Cavurn is able to do a 180 and churn out some, vile, punishing, speedy death as well. This combination of sounds, along with the band's approach to instrumentation and vocals, really helps to hammer home the energy and thickness of sound on Rehearsal.
Blasting forth from the underground, but retaining that brutal, subterranean sound, Cavurn's Rehearsal is a pummeling piece of thick, grim death metal. Now on Blood Harvest, one can expect to see their releases hit a wider initial audience. And, with the current market flood of "old-school" death clogging earways and airwaves (well, so to speak), Cavurn's heavy hammering approach is very welcome.