On its second album Dutch death metal band Caedere started to develop more of its own identity. Still heavily indebted to Severe Torture “Clones Of Industry” has Caedere slowly letting loose of its direct influence towards something more individual sounding. More of a refinement than a reinvention “Clones Of Industry” merely hints at what would materialize. “Clones Of Industry” solidifies the promise that Caedere was on the verge of breaking away from its inspirations and becoming its own recognizable entity. Delayed for over a year by its contractor Grotesque Production and released without a promotional campaign worthy of the name, “Clones Of Industry” should have been bigger than it ended up being.
In the six years since its unassuming and fairly typical debut the band had acquired a second guitarist with Thomas Luijken, and a better understanding of where it wanted to take its music. Caedere has the misfortune of positioning itself in between the two ends of the spectrum. It has neither the hooks and grooves of “Feasting On Blood” Severe Torture, and neither the unholy riff schemes and malevolent atmosphere of early Sinister. Caedere is influenced by both, but tends to gravitate more towards the Severe Torture part of the equation.
“Mass Emission” was still heavily indebted to early Severe Torture (and Cannibal Corpse, by proxy). “Clones Of Industry” is marked by a light Morbid Angel influence in comparison to the debut of six years prior. The influence translates itself in better balanced song structures, and less of a focus on immediate visceral punch. The riff construction and chord progressions are still closely linked to “Feasting On Blood” and “Misanthropic Carnage” era Severe Torture. The riffing itself has become weightier, as have the transitions and the general feel of the songs. The Morbid Angel influence that defined its third album “The Lost Conveyance” is limited to a few isolated instances.
Understanding that more animated lead work, a scarcity on “Mass Emission” to say the very least, was necessary to spice up its assault two tracks feature guitar solos. Adding further diversity is the bass break in ‘Reincarnation Of A Soul’. ‘Transitoriness and Oblivion’ is interesting in retrospect because of its greater Morbid Angel influence, and that it was a precursor to the band’s direction on its subsequent album “The Lost Conveyance”. Not all material on “Clones Of Industry” was new as the trio of ‘Need For Greed’, ‘Clones Of Industry’ and ‘Scorn’ were all re-recorded from the independently distributed “Promo 2007”.
A more interesting evolution happened with Caedere’s choice of lyrical subject matter. “Clones Of Industry” forgoes the trite gore content of its “Mass Emission” debut in favor of a broad socio-political thematic detailing how economic – and technological advancements have forced various participants of society into a role of indentured servitude. Conceptually “Clones Of Industry” hardly offers up any novelties, or new insights into its dystopian subject of choice, but it is infinitely more interesting than the tired and tiresome gore that characterized much of its debut. The artwork by Rutger de Vries for Hrödger Design capitalizes on the subject matter with a number of interchangeable faces set to a background of a high-rise building.
The album was recorded at Deusex Infernis Studio in Zutphen with Pascal Altena producing, except for the drums that were recorded at Scenic Studio in Enschede with Nico van Montfort engineering. “Clones Of Industry” was mastered by Disavowed vocalist Robbert Kok at Audiovisualz. The production choices are somewhat puzzling when it comes right to it. Caedere combines a Swedish guitar tone, decidedly Stockholm in tone, with audible bass guitar licks and an Immolation-like drum sound. Whether this production choice was done to budgetary contraints or inexperience remains to be seen. It’s an odd choice of tones that don’t mesh well, and often make the record sounds unnecessarily hostile to inexperienced listeners. What it lacks in clarity it makes up in crunch, and what it lacks in textural depth it complements in sheer concreteness.
An unfortunate set of circumstances with its label resulted in the album being delayed for over a year by Spanish label Grotesque Productions. This in turn prompted the interest of American label Deepsend Records to release the album instead you could look here. Loyal to its original contract Caedere persevered with its Spanish label partner, who ended up doing zero promotion for the record. In hindsight Deepsend Records could perhaps have given “Clones Of Industry” the kind of promotion it deserved. As it stands “Clones Of Industry” is where Caedere started to show more individual character, and no longer was a mere sum of its collective influences. It was the missing link between its bog-standard beginnings and its more musically/lyrically sophisticated third offering.
Unlike a lot of others Caedere understands the importance of bottom-end heaviness, and “The Lost Conveyance” has an incredible crunch in regards to its concrete bass guitar and kickdrum tone, even though the snares and toms sounded better on prior records. In fact the drum tone seems to be on the only strike against “The Lost Conveyance”. Jarno Olinga proves to be a suitable replacement for original drummer Sjoerd Modderkolk as far as intensity is concerned, but doesn’t quite possess the creative chaos that Modderkolk provided behind the kit. Michiel Lankhorst is the Dutch equivalent of fomer Morbid Angel - and current