Italian band CAYNE was formed back in the late 1990’s, and released their debut album “Old Faded Pictures” in 2002. But following this the band appears to have entered a lengthy spell of inactivity, until they reappeared with a new line-up in 2011. Come 2013 and they signed to Graviton Music Services, who released Cayne’s second full length production “Cayne” at the start of the year.
Cayne is yet another intriguing case from the vaults of Graviton Music Services for me. Ever since I was graciously granted access to their promo material towards the end of 2013, and now when I’ve finally managed to dig down to writing about it, I’m rather impressed with the artists Graviton have catered for so far in my inspections. The diversity and scope of the artists signed to this more-than-just-a-label company is intriguing as well.
Cayne is a band I’d describe as a mainstream oriented metal band at heart. They specialize in the creation of songs that could easily find their way onto any FM radio station you can name, but at the same time they haven’t forgotten what metal is all about, seeing to it that the lighter brigade have just as much material to enjoy as the dedicated metal fans that wouldn’t want to be seen without their leather jackets and stud belts. A difficult balancing act, but one I think this band pulls off quite nicely indeed.
To elaborate a bit. This is a band with a strong vocalist, capable of delivering tender vocals for the ballad and power ballad oriented compositions with ease, but also capable of adding grit and passion to his vocals whenever the band hits a more aggressive run. Which they frequently do. And when Cayne hits the most demanding aspects of their balancing act, by combining gritty, grimy riffs and a moderately aggressive approach with AOR-oriented sequences of a gentler hard rock nature, the lead vocals function just as well in both of these rather contrasting modes of metal.
Cayne at their most aggressive sports powerful and hammering riffs aplenty, at times even with slight tendencies towards djent unless I’m much mistaken, and these more aggressive parts of their repertoire have grit and edge aplenty. This mode is rarely if ever explored in full through an entire composition though, and as a minimum the chorus section will be the one that smooths out the edges and the grit, with catchy singalong chorus sections a specialty and frequently supported by dampened riffs with melodic overlays by way of guitars and the occasional subtle keyboard motif.
On the other hand, on quite a few occasions Cayne will opt for a gentler general sound, where both verse and chorus will sport more of an AOR oriented sound, mood and arrangement, with plenty of room for light toned, plucked guitar details where the riffs have a distinct supporting role only, where the grittier aspects of their natures are used more sparingly in the instrumental interludes and transitional phases. Still, the most common approach appears to be the compositions where the gentler aspects and the grittier ones are fairly evenly balanced if not in play time then at least in terms of impact in the individual creations.
A smooth mix and production is the coating that makes this balancing act work, and I would imagine that in a live setting this is a band far grittier and with more of a punch than on this album, whose overall sound and atmosphere is of the kind that just about defines the word accessible. And while one might argue that this is a CD that is kind of predictable, and perhaps a tad too smooth for it’s own good, Cayne manage to pull it off due to sheer excellence in just about all departments here. The songs are well planned, well executed and well produced. Fairly often I found myself waiting for the punchier guitars to kick in or for the singalong chorus with majestic, harmony oriented arrangements to kick in, and was pleasantly surprised and intrigued by just how well this was pulled off.
The end result is an album that comes across as a modern blend of 80’s hair metal of the AOR oriented variety and modern heavy metal, liberally flavored with aggressive details. I’m not familiar enough with contemporary metal to draw any direct comparisons, but I see this band referenced as Gothic metal in many places, and if you can imagine a band of that kind that draw inspirations from the likes of early Bon Jovi for their chorus sections and ballad oriented compositions you should at least be on the right track in terms of how this sounds. In sum a band that warrants an inspection by a broad audience as I experience them, as both fans of accessible mainstream metal and those more fond of edgy, aggressive heavy metal should find this album to be an interesting one.
My rating: 77/100
