CADAVEROUS CONDITION – Never Arrive, Never Return (Album Review)

Cadaverous Condition is a truly unique band, indeed this is an adjective that is used lightly but I assure you that it is fully justified here. This band has, for many years, flown below my radar and that of many other people, and perhaps this is due to the very nature of the band, experimental and artistic for the most part, leading them to be seen as something merely anecdotal due to their particularities rather than as a way of hooking someone into their music. For the sake of understanding the point, Cadaverous Condition is an Austrian band that has been around since 1990, so they can be categorized as old-school death metal (OSDM), however, to label them as such alone would hardly be doing them justice, as their music is riddled with different musical influences, such as gothic rock, dark ambient and especially neo-folk.

“Never Arrive, Never Return” is the band’s first album in thirteen years, the longest period between releases. I’d be lying if I denied having done a previous revision of their discography to know what this comeback could offer. Yet, this work has come to surprise me, even if it wasn’t for the expected reasons. If you look back on their career, you will see a band that was very open to putting different elements in their music, even if they didn’t even fit at first, I think that always gave a shabby and over-the-top touch to their music, one can notice the artistic value of their neofolk with guttural death metal vocals songs, but I also understand why people would feel them as something bit ridiculous. Luckily Cadaverous Condition eventually gained skills and redefined their style in order to find a good balance between genres and know better how to combine the discordant elements that each style has.

That’s why “Never Arrive, Never Return” is so surprising, because this is the most straightforward album of their entire career, the experimentation section is the most subtle and discreet they have ever done, but that doesn’t mean that there is no room for such features, as, the black metal inspired guitar lead on ‘They Came from the Hills’, the spoken word section at the end of ‘The Plow’ or the acoustic and post rockish elements on ‘From the Other Side’. Still, the majority of the time it’s still predominantly by that deep-rooted old-school death metal sound, with some standard riffage (to the point where I suspect tracks like ‘Hidden Things’ are an exaggeratedly clear tribute to the early Swedish scene) accompanied by intense, shattering blast beats and a vocal delivery very reminiscent of those classic gutturals that established themselves as the trademark of the genre in the 90s.

All this blend makes the songwriting more focused on creating truly satisfying and memorable moments, the kind of ones that make you bang your head like a maniac to the rhythm of sick and powerful groove riffs, moments that uncompromisingly emphasize power and strength, and it’s peculiar that this comes from a band that is usually much mellower, melancholic and precious, almost as if they wanted to show us with this comeback that this kind of feelings also have their wild side and, above all, that although many years have passed they are still able to turn the amps to the maximum and blow the head of any misguided listener, after all, this is still pure and unfiltered death metal.

Released By: The Circle Music
Release Date: June 14th, 2024
Genre: Old School Death Metal

Musicians:

• Wolfgang Weiss / Vocals
• René Kramer / Guitars
• Peter Droneberger / Bass, guitars
• Paul Droneberger / Drums

“Never Arrive, Never Return” Track List:

1. They Came From The Hills
2. The Plow
3. The Eternal Burial
4. All The Wrong Turns
5. A Blizzard Of Lies
6. From The Other Side
7. Hidden Things
8. The Darkness Is In My Bloodstream Now
9. A Thousand Midnights In The Silent War
10. To Be

Order “Never Arrive, Never Return” HERE