Caveat, No Expectations
metal group gains traction, keeps pop senses
Andrew Patrie, photos by Andrea Paulseth |
Once, as a kid, I rode along with a friend and his father to the dump and traipsed among the refuse, the snuffed light of memories, and, overwhelmed by the fickle rapacity of human appetite, felt the familiarity of the world fall away amidst compact and undulate mounds rising as far as the eye could track. I managed to salvage a coveted “switchblade comb” from the dampened detritus. It was missing a few black teeth, but the release mechanism still worked, and I brandished it all day in that wasteland of mutated milk-cartons and deformed dolls. If there had been a soundtrack synchronized to my post-apocalyptic play, it could have easily been Caveat.
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, in first reacting to the lunar landscape, coined the phrase, “Magnificent desolation.” A similar feeling moves through the entirety of Caveat’s Kobayashi Maru EP. There’s a stylistic collision between the Bolt Thrower-esque rhythmic rumble and tumble of riff and drum and the Baroness-like ear for rending melody that marks this quartet as one of the most exciting (and promising) newcomers (having formed in 2012) to the Eau Claire metal scene. So it is appropriate I meet with the band in a garage space littered with motorcycles, beer, whiskey, and bearded dudes in dusty duds looking like caricatures from The Road Warrior. Caveat (pronounced kav-ee-aht) is Latin for “warning,” after all. If only I still had my switchblade comb …
“It’s like Star Trek. Lieutenant Worf is Klingon and raised by humans. He’s not one or the other rather a combo of both. And that’s us.” –Nate Knoeck, aka Bones, on Caveat’s diverse metal sound
Thankfully, both “Bones,” real name Nate Knoeck, (vocals/guitar) and Brandon O’Connell (guitar) are all grins and not looking to place my head upon a pike. Other members soon arrive: Zak Colvin (vocals/bass) brings his three year old son, Noah, along and Emily Hartman (drums) cradles a … violin. “I thought we’d fit into Volume One better with a violin,” she smiles.
Despite their nascent status in the scene, Caveat are no strangers to the hardcore/metal stage. Bones has performed with both Flags Will Cover the Coffins and Dresden, O’Connell is also in the ascendant black metal act Infernal Altar, and Colvin is most recognizable from his stint in Purge the Woods. The latter reflects on his return to music after a significant hiatus: “Having a kid changes everything. I told myself if I was going to do this again, it was going to be a project close to my heart.”
And heart is certainly what you get stretched across five tracks of powerfully fluid beats, effortlessly shifting dynamics (from Sabbath-ish plod to punk swagger), dry and throaty bellows, and an impeccable ear for a guitar harmony or three. A song like “Pyramid of Greatness Part I” takes its time but in no way feels like time is being taken from you.
Sludge, doom, and d-beat are all adjectives that have been flung at the band. “We often get lumped as a death metal band,” says O’Connell.
“That’s because of our vocals. Musically, we probably have more in common with pop,” surprises Hartman.
Bones comments on the diversity in sound that has become Caveat’s trademark: “It’s like Star Trek. Lieutenant Worf is Klingon and raised by humans. He’s not one or the other rather a combo of both. And that’s us.”
Adds Emily, “This is the easiest band to write music for I have ever been in. I mean, stupid easy. It’s pretty awesome. We must all have a similar brain structure, or similar influences, because the process is instantaneous.”
The EP is currently available as a free download, though there are plans for a physical release (via CD) in the near future. When asked about whether or not this trend of artists releasing their music for free in some ways devalues the work, Caveat are blunt.
“We’re not looking to make money. I’ve never made money in any band I was in,” replies Bones.
Colvin, who recorded the songs (“so there’s no overhead”), counters, “How much should we sell it for to add ‘value’? At this point we need only to cover production costs.”
“We write and play music simply because we enjoy it. There’s value enough in that,” finishes Hartman.
It would seem others agree as the group continues to draw attention. New Orleans’s “legendary” Eyehategod have been pounding eardrums to pulp since 1989 and are making their first appearance on Eau Claire soil (alongside such luminaries as Today is the Day and Exhumed) on Thursday Nov. 13, at the House of Rock, and Caveat have secured the opening slot.
As a witness to their live show, I can attest to how life-affirming a song like “Doge” is when the band, at the 3:40 mark, shifts the riff and sounds like a mammoth rearing on its hind legs in a final, defiant display in the face of imminent extinction, or a kid atop a garbage pile, his arms raised like lightning rods toward a deaf, grey sky.
To hear the Kobayashi Maru EP, visit caveat-ec.bandcamp.com
