Swedish trio Cavern Deep release their self-titled debut July 23 through Interstellar Smoke Records. The album begins on a ledge looking underground and ends simply in “The Dark Place,” so it’s safe to assume that the narrative happening across the eight-song/46-minute outing from the Umeå-based three-piece doesn’t go well for the team of 50 explorers undertaking it. The band — guitarist/vocalist Kenny-Oswald Duvfenberg, bassist/vocalist Max Malmer and drummer/backup vocalist Dennis Sjödin (also keys), who introduces second cut “Abandoned Quarters” with duly ceremonial organ — use open space as well as tonal largesse to their aural advantage throughout Cavern Deep, with Duvfenberg‘s vocals echoing out in mournful fashion atop willful lumber, embodying the slog one might make in pursuit of unknown riches, and in spaces minimal and crushing, telling the story with duly grim and soulful perspective while remaining fluid in songcraft all the while.

From the shift out of the plodding stretch of “Staring Down” into its solo-topped apex, the instruments have their say in the narrative as well. Sjödin‘s drums march with a dutiful sensibility as “Abandoned Quarters” takes up the journey where the opener left off, and Malmer‘s bassline later in the open, quiet portion of the second half helps to set up the Candlemassian epic finish, rumbling into the cinematic-then-crushing back and forth of “Ominous Gardens,” and leading the way into the presumed side A finale, “Waterways,”  a highlight for the confidence of its vocal arrangement and the splendor-in-decay its riff conjures over the still-tense keys. This is not a debut lacking attention to detail, or patience, or complexity in its construction. It is not haphazard. Cavern Deep are methodical both in their groove and in how these songs are built. In short, they are not fucking around.

There’s dissention in the ranks of our cavern-divers as “Leap of Faith” opens with the lines, “22 are stalling/Below is only void,” and the more active chug that accompanies. Like “Deeper Grounds,” which follows — and for which a live-in-studio performance video is premiering below — “Leap of Faith” strips down some of the lyrical impressionism of side A to add a sense of chaos to the ever-downward procession, but is one word and one central riff in “Deeper Grounds,” and “deeper” about covers it. Both songs are shorter than anything on the first half of Cavern Deep, and they give way to the brooding lurch of “Fungal Realm,” the dark hallucinogenic crescendo of the record as a whole, answering back to the grandiosity of “Waterways” as a closer might, but still leaving room for the organ-laced “The Dark Place” to cap with a feeling of arrival.

If you’re worried about a spoiler for how it turns out, I guess it would be a jerk move for me to ruin the end of the tale, so I won’t do that, but yeah. They telegraph pretty well where the conclusion is headed. They kind of gave it away too when the album was announced, but in any case, there’s a reason it’s “The Dark Place” and not “The Friendly Place Where Everything’s Fine and Hey I Just Found Five Dollars Isn’t That Awesome.”

The performance video below for “Deeper Grounds” follows one for “Fungal Realm” the band posted in April, and they’ve been leaking tracks periodically through their Bandcamp page as well if you’d like to get even more of a sense where they’re coming from. The crash and hopelessness of “Deeper Grounds” are both well represented here and not to be discounted for their effect on the album that surrounds.

As always, I hope you enjoy.

Cavern Deep, “Deeper Grounds” live video premiere

Cavern Deep on “Deeper Grounds”:

“Deeper Grounds is the 6th track of our upcoming concept album, the song is about the point where the expedition into the cavernous realm realize that there is no way to go except further down into the abyss. The lyrics are as follows:

Deeper
Deeper
Deeper
Deeper

This live recording was made at our bassist Max’s studio-rehersal in Umeå. The hats is an artifact of the number of beers consumed prior to the recording of the song.”

Cavern Deeps debut concept album is about 50 adventurers that find the entrance to a lost underground civilization which they enter with the hopes of treasure.

The debut self-titled album is about one archeologist and his crew of ambitious henchmen and their descent into the cavernous realm below the crust of the earth. Learn about their fate and listen to some heavy, gloomy riffs along their slow path downwards.

The album will be released on all major platforms and vinyl via Interstellar Smoke Records on July 23rd.

Cavern Deep is:
Kenny-Oswald Duvfenberg – Guitars and Vocals
Max Malmer – Bass and Vocals
Dennis Sjödin – Drums, Backup Vocals and Keys

Cavern Deep, “Funal Realm” live at Malmer Productions

Cavern Deep on Instagram

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Cavern Deep website

Cavern Deep on Bandcamp

Interstellar Smoke Records on Bandcamp

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Tags: Cavern Deep, Cavern Deep Self-titled, Interstellar Smoke Records, self-titled, Sweden, Umeå

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