Cane Hill – Smile

Cane Hill just released their debut album ‘Smile’ and it’s a great example of nu metal. I’m glad bands like these guys and My Ticket Home are helping keep it alive at a time when it’s so popular to just be a metalcore band. If you’re looking for heavy breakdowns this probably isn’t the band for you but their lack of “BLEGHS” is made up by their fast paced riffs and nonstop aggression. 

One of the things I really like about these guys is how they build a creepy tension in their songs. “True Love” starts off kind of slow and has little outbursts of intensity before being reigned back in. It puts you in a cool spot because the song is so bipolar and it’s building up the entire time and all you can do is wait for it to come. I know that’s a pretty standard thing in nu metal but it reminds me a lot of how Slipknot does the same thing on songs like “Scissors”. 

You’ll definitely hear a little bit of Korn and Marilyn Manson in this album but not so much that it sounds like Cane Hill is ripping them off. When I got to “You’re So Wonderful” I had to restart it because it’s so different than all the songs that come before it. A lot of bands have a soft song in the middle but this one is one of the best uses of it that I’ve heard. “You’re So Wonderful” could seriously stand on its own. It matches the tone of the songs that came before it and meshes with them perfectly despite sounding so different. Not to mention Elijah Witt displays how incredible his clean vocals are on that song too. 

Overall this album is exactly what nu metal should be: fast paced and aggressive. I love the creepy tension and how they constantly use it to build up their songs. This is such a good album; if Cane Hill were around 20 years ago they would have blown up like Slipknot did. If you’re into any of the bands I mentioned I’d highly recommend checking this album out.