This one hits a little harder than this kind of news generally might, in part because Caustic Casanova so gleefully seemed to stomp all over the proverbial ‘next level’ with their 2022 album, Glass Enclosed Nerve Center (review here), which — if you have to have that as your last record, at least it saves you the trouble of trying to top it. I’ve gone on and on about its multi-tiered brilliance, and the performance on vocals and drums of Stefanie Zaenker is a crucial, integral part of that. As regards the band in its until-now-current configuration, she is essential personnel. Her leaving after 18 years, well, that’s a tough one to take.

On the other hand, after 18 years, I sincerely doubt she owes anyone anything, so if it was time to go, that’s all there is to it. Bassist/vocalist Francis Beringer — the four-piece is (was?) completed by guitarists Jake Kimberley and Andrew Yonki — posted the following on social media and I think in reading the personal nature of that loss comes through. I don’t know how Caustic Casanova moves forward without Zaenker in the lineup, but I also can’t imagine being a drummer, hearing their last record, and not wanting to join the band, so it’s entirely possible they might find somebody and be able to keep going. No question that any future incarnation would be a significant change in style and personality. If you ever saw them live (I’m sad I didn’t for this album) or checked them out at all, you know Zaenker was one of a kind in what she brought to the mix. I would have loved to see that full-arrangement “Bull Moose Against the Sky.”

So yeah, deep exhale. Here’s the post:

Hello, Francis here.

Stefanie has decided to leave Caustic Casanova, permanently and effective immediately. There will be no final shows or goodbye tours or anything like that, unfortunately.

For 18 amazing years, she was the beating heart and belting soul of this eclectic music machine that went from college dorm room band to a nationally touring heavy rock behemoth. She is an elite level drummer, masterful composer, and all-around fantastic musician. She became an outstanding co-vocalist and, most recently, keyboardist. She booked tours, handled logistics, drove the van, and did anything and everything to help this band succeed. In many ways, she was the leader of Caustic Casanova. She put everything she had into it. The amount of times she resolutely kept us going when things looked bleak: you have no idea. CC wouldn’t have made it five years, much less eighteen, without her strength and vision, determination and grit. Eventually, all truly great things do come to an end. Honestly, more important than the music is the bond that Stefanie and I shared since 2005, that Andrew and her shared since 2012 (and before that, too, as friends), and that Jake and her shared since 2019. Touring that much, writing that much, practicing that much, hanging out that much (24/7 on the road) — it’s a kind of closeness with another human being few will ever know. It’s so sad to lose it, to know that it’s over. It doesn’t just feel like a part of me is gone — a major part of me IS gone. 18 years is a long time to be a rhythm section.

Her first show was April 20th, 2005 at Lodge One, Williamsburg, VA, The College of William and Mary. Her final show was December 19th, 2022 at Highlands Tap Room, Louisville, KY, for Metal Monday. In between that time we played in almost every state in the lower 48, as well as in three provinces of Canada.

Where this leaves the band I simply cannot say. The idea of Stef taking a break, or bowing out, had been bandied about since the winter. I hoped she might reconsider. Later I thought there might be some transition over to another drummer with her help and blessing. I even fantasized about getting in a farewell show or two. I hoped to play “Bull Moose Against the Sky” live, at least once, with J Robbins and Howard Parker on stage and a guest on keyboards. Many nights I fell asleep imagining a packed house at Pie Shop in DC erupting as we kicked into the 22 minute song with the acapella intro. Unfortunately, none of that can happen anymore.

Part of me thinks this is the natural end of Caustic Casanova. Part of me thinks, considering all our successes in 2022, that the band should continue, if the right drummer can be found, though that’s an extremely tall order. Part of me thinks an indefinite hiatus is the way to go, so I can process all of this. If you’ve got thoughts, advice, encouragement, feel free to share. Also, feel free to share your favorite Zaenker memories from shows, records, couchsurfing, hanging out, etc! Let’s celebrate Stef’s indelible contributions to CC, the DC music scene, and the larger heavy rock/stoner/doom scene.

Regardless of what happens with the band, there will be additional recordings released digitally this summer, all featuring Stef on drums and vocals. The live version of Filth Castle / Poor Wigs from Sky Stage and the EPPPCOT EP will go on all streaming services, and we’ll have Pantheon: Vol. 4 after that, and then a live recording will follow. I am not anticipating anything physical for these but you never know.

I ask that you please not speculate about or discuss the band members’ personal lives in the comments. If you do, it will be deleted. Please reach out to one of us individually if you want clarification. The social media accounts are entirely run by me (Fran) now.

One final time, thank you to Stefanie Zaenker for eighteen amazing years of bringing the thunder behind the kit and being such a wonderful part of our lives! I know I speak for the band and all of CC Nation when we loudly proclaim: WE WILL MISS YOU SO MUCH! THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING!

http://causticcasanova.com/
https://www.facebook.com/CausticCasanova
https://www.instagram.com/CausticCasanova/

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http://magneticeyerecords.com/
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Caustic Casanova, “Lodestar” official video

Caustic Casanova, “A Bailar Con Cuarentena” official video

Caustic Casanova, Glass Enclosed Nerve Center (2022)

What a joy this record is. Now based in Frederick, Maryland, and Upstate or Upstate-ish New York with a style no more easy to pin down, the post-hardcore-infused progressive heavy noise rock of Caustic Casanova has never come across in a recording so full and vibrant as it does on their 2022 album, Glass Enclosed Nerve Center (review here). It’s like they took the wretched weirdness of our times and set it all up on a series of spinning plates, and they spend the entire album running back and forth making sure none of the plates stop until finally, at the end, they take all the plates and smash them over your fucking head because what are you doing watching plates spin anyway? It’s a very special, very specific, very heavy kind of magic they capture.

If you haven’t heard that album yet — the release was early last month on Magnetic Eye, so you’re by no means late — the stream is of course at the bottom of this post. The four-piece (maybe traveling as a trio, I don’t know) toured to Monolith on the Mesa in New Mexico in Sept. and will head south from Maryland in December to continue to support it along the Southeastern Seaboard, hitting the Carolinas, Georgia and Kentucky on a six-shows-six-nights jaunt that wraps up their year nicely. Before they go, drummer/vocalist Stefanie Zaenker is filling in on drums for War on Women on a tour that starts tonight in Massachusetts — more info in this Facebook post — and runs until Dec. 7. I only expect more touring to take place in 2023, and I’d be lying if I told you I wasn’t thinking of putting together a fest-ish lineup just to try to book them for it playing Glass Enclosed Nerve Center in its glorious entirety.

The band posted the dates on social media as follows:

Yo!

Hope our American fans enjoyed their Thanksgiving! Gobble Gobble!

Better late than never folks, we’re pleased to announce our “Glass Enclosed December to Remember Nerve Center Tour.”

The dates:
12/14 – Asheville, NC at The Odd
12/15 – Winston-Salem, NC at Monstercade
12/16 – Atlanta, GA at Sabbath Brewing
12/17 – North Charleston, SC at Tua Lingua
12/18 – Charlotte, NC at The Milestone
12/19 – Louisville, KY at Highlands Tap Room

Art by Jase Harper. Photo by Shane K. Gardner.

Caustic Casanova are:
Francis Beringer – Bass/Vocals
Stefanie Zaenker – Drums/Vocals
Andrew Yonki – Guitar
Jake Kimberley – Guitar

http://causticcasanova.com/
https://www.facebook.com/CausticCasanova
https://www.instagram.com/CausticCasanova/

http://store.merhq.com
http://magneticeyerecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MagneticEyeRecords

Caustic Casanova, “A Bailar Con Cuarentena” official video

Caustic Casanova, Glass Enclosed Nerve Center (2022)

[Click play above to stream Caustic Casanova’s Glass Enclosed Nerve Center. Album is out Friday, Oct. 7, on Magnetic Eye Records and can be preordered here.]

It does not matter what genre label you want to put on Caustic Casanova‘s fifth album, Glass Enclosed Nerve Center. There is no box, no simple explanation from which it will not wiggle loose. What is hands-down one of the best offerings of 2022 in the stylistic umbrella that is heavy rock, it is a definitive manifestation of who the band have always been and who their potential has meant they could be. From professing love amid pedal steel and a newfound affection for synth that will continue to serve them well in “Anubis Rex,” happenstance-skewering like it’s no big deal both sides of maybe the stupidest debate in recorded human history — ‘iz medicin halp?’ — in the single lyric, “But with perfect ideology it’s impossible to spread disease,” of “A Bailar Con Cuarentena,” to narrating totalitarian anxieties via Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Party in “Bull Moose Against the Sky,” Glass Enclosed Nerve Center is likewise intricately composed and untethered feeling, the band — bassist/vocalist Francis Beringer, drummer/vocalist Stefanie Zænker, guitarist Andrew Yonki and, involved for the first time in the writing, second guitarist Jake Kimberley — mining creative triumph from the raw ore of human decline.

Instrumentally, lyrically and in their performance as captured here by returning producer J. Robbins (and returning mixer Andrew Schneider; it’s a winning team), with whom the band have worked for over a decade, Caustic Casanova are a blast. “Anubis Rex” begins with a sunrise of guitar, and from there the momentum is quickly established across the three shorter opening tracks — “Anubis Rex” (posted here), “Lodestar” (video posted here) and “A Bailar Con Cuarentena” (video posted here) — as the band twist from one part to the next in an establish-the-riff-then-start-the-vocals manner that speaks to their underlying foundation in post-hardcore.

Each of these three pieces, all of which are under five minutes long, offers something else, whether it’s the bass punch of “Lodestar,” the hungover, grown-up emo of “Anubis Rex” or the encapsulation of our era, percussive playfulness and restless freneticism of “A Bailar Con Cuarentena,” but they are united in perspective, in their thoughtful execution, lyrics that are smart, funny, an obvious focal point and worth committing to memory, and in their ability as players to launch into another level of heft even from was on offer in 2019’s God How I Envy the Deaf (review here). “Anubis Rex” is more about movement than weight, relatively speaking, but with its mathy beginning “Lodestar” both makes and delivers on the threat, with Caustic Casanova harnessing a sound like the band one wishes Mastodon had become, able to dizzy with complex, progressively styled changes while remaining accessible via the overarching melody and, in this case, a hook.

“A Bailar Con Cuarentena” is a highlight that builds off elements put forth in the first two tracks — thus a logical third — and lives up to having the word ‘dance’ in its title while still managing a linear narrative that moves from sipping mental champagne with shut-in multitudes to finding out why the rattlesnake’s teeth are so white. It also serves as a lead-in for the 9:40 “Shrouded Coconut,” a marked shift in approach that pulls away from the immediacy of the first three tracks in favor of a long instrumental stretch before its first verse, playing back and forth between riffs and leads over a swinging beat, spacious keys, etc., for the better part of its initial four minutes — longer than “Lodestar,” which is 3:41, for example — before Beringer and Zænker begin singing. The change can be jarring if you don’t know it’s coming, but “Shrouded Coconut” offers depth for repeat listeners in its plotted movement and increase in intensity later as they cut the tempo and shift into a feedback-laced lumber the likes of which would bring a tear to Floor‘s collective eye, ending in a solid minute of noise that feels well earned as a cap to side A.

By this time, Glass Enclosed Nerve Center has set itself up for what follows on the 22-minute “Bull Moose Against the Sky,” a genuine epic tale complete with multiple characters between Theodore Roosevelt, his wife Edith, attempted-assassin John Flammang Schrank, Jane Addams, William Howard Taft (played by Robbins) and a Greek-style chorus. The lyrics are set up as a kind of morality play, with lines and verses given to characters beginning with Beringer a capella soon joined by Zænker as they describe a fever dream of the Dakotas. This beginning, after all the noise at the end of “Shrouded Coconut,” is stark and the snare and guitar work that follows is heavy Americana wrought in such a way as to emphasize both the theatrics — all that’s missing in that start is a fife, and I’m not sure a fife would actually work there; there’s just about no way it wasn’t considered — but within the first five minutes, they’ve built on the heft in “Lodestar” and “Shrouded Coconut,” drawn themselves out through winding crunch accordingly, and begun the tale of Roosevelt deciding to run for President a third time, being shot, losing and ultimately dying.

I’ll just say it and get it out of the way: It’s the best song I’ve heard this year, as both a story/conceptual work and just as a righteous summary of the band. From the pride-swell vocals at the start to the sneaky entry after seven minutes in of the “Thriller”-style keyboards soon to swell to prominence as Edith declares/warns, “He’s a magnet/A comet/With molten and volcanic core,” to the thrust backing Robbins-as-Taft’s resolve, “I have a part to play/I’ll play it,” and the turns past the 10-minute mark between the chorus and the increasing frenzy of Roosevelt’s mindset — mirrored in the music, naturally — that give way to a post-black metal mini-stretch of blastbeats and reverb-soaked vocals from Zænker, because why not, and a bright-sounding momentary up-for-air that results in a highlight guitar solo, mapped out and no less considered than any of the words to any of these songs, before a standout verse of looming storm begins the apex movement of the piece. Yes, there is more blasting as Beringer-as-Roosevelt berates with outdated namecalling, “Weasel worders, mollycoddlers, kittle cattle, tame/The black blood crusts around the mouths of those you have betrayed,” and it comes after a sweeping and progressive noise rock tumult from which they sprint driven by suitable tremolo and, at 18:25, a resounding thud that is the signal of entry into the song’s still-heavy comedown.

Like all that feedback at the end of “Shrouded Coconut,” the denouement in “Bull Moose Against the Sky” is purposeful and makes a fitting conclusion. Roosevelt swaggers, “It’ll take more than a bullet to kill a bull moose like me,” but the keyboard has already started the dirge that the whole band will soon take up, the guitars seeming to claw for more life even as the final lines are recited in callback to earlier verses, leaving no loose ends instrumental or otherwise. So it is that Glass Enclosed Nerve Center finishes with a distant echo of guitar playing the melodic answer to “Face is marred by sweat [blood] and dust/Fails again and again and just gets up.” Silence weighs heavy when it is finished, underscoring the power of the song to make its audience feel something for this character who, in addition to sport-killing in colonialist fervor throughout his life, was a megalomaniac who sabotaged his own political party in unhinged bridge-burning zealotry. Nobody remembers that part. Everybody remembers the face on Mt. Rushmore.

And while “Bull Moose Against the Sky” is a career achievement in its own right, it is not at all the sum total of accomplishments on Glass Enclosed Nerve Center. Each of these five tracks adds something to the whole, is crucial in craft and engaging regardless of the approach one wants to take in hearing it. Touring veterans at more nearly 15 years’ remove from their 2008 debut, Imminent Eminence, Caustic Casanova are a refreshing answer to the cynicism of both “rock is dead” and “there’s too much out there and it all sounds the same.” They are between punk, metal, prog, noise and heavy rock(s) in such a way as to be on a wavelength of their own, and while that’s been the case for some time, never before have they come across as so utterly in command of their style and songwriting. They have pushed and pushed and pushed themselves creatively ever forward in an individual approach, and this is one of the best albums of 2022 with longer, enduring resonance anticipated. Some records you just know you’re going to live with. Recommended.

Caustic Casanova, “A Bailar Con Cuarentena” official video

Caustic Casanova, “Lodestar” official video

Caustic Casanova, Glass Enclosed Nerve Center (2022)

Caustic Casanova website

Caustic Casanova on Facebook

Caustic Casanova on Instagram

Caustic Casanova on Bandcamp

Magnetic Eye Records on Bandcamp

Magnetic Eye Records website

Magnetic Eye Records on Facebook

Caustic Casanova bassist/vocalist Francis Beringer below cites the lyrics to the band’s new single, “A Bailar Con Cuarentena,” as perhaps his favorite ever, which even considering the rest of their upcoming LP, Glass Enclosed Nerve Center (out Oct. 7 on Magnetic Eye Records, set to stream here in full on Oct. 5) never mind their four prior albums and sundry other releases, is saying something. But yeah, it’s understandable. The band isn’t through the first verse before they’ve introduced the AutoZone Messiah and made fun of his mullet with bonus wordplay in substituting “piety” for “party,” toyed with language in multiple languages and established the setting for the song in the age of the titular pandemic quarantine.

Oh but there’s more. Consider the phonetic chicanery between “Logorrhea” and “lager,” a French pronunciation for “timbre” tossed in for good measure to make it work with “amber,” or the similar rhyme-plus pairing of “Appalachianese” and “ideology.” The gleefully weird, mundane-as-unfamiliar portrayed in the lines, “Another incantation from the half-mad cocatrice/Peaceful defenestration from the rock band name police,” and “defenestration” for “demonstration” there. The classic post-hardcore word swap of “seat”/”screen” codifying the awaiting if word and signal earlier. The sheer encapsulation of the era in “This news is big if true.” Shit that’s efficient. And the air of threat in the final part, where we meet and speak with the rattlesnake. Favorite or not, the attention to detail and composition in “A Bailar Con Cuarentena” is deeply, deeply admirable.

And the video is so perfectly odd. Animated by Jase Harper, with birds a plenty and some only-suitable headbanging, we see Beringer, drummer/vocalist Stefanie Zaenker and guitarist Jake Kimberley playing as a trio while remotely-located guitarist Andrew Yonki looks down as an angry sun. Heads are flowers, times are a tough and riffs are mighty. No, I’m not sick of telling you how good this record is. If I have any credibility at all after running this site for the last 13-plus years of my wretched life, please believe me when I tell you Glass Enclosed Nerve Center is something special from this band and not to be missed.

I had bothered Beringer a while back for the lyric sheet to go with the album, and seeing his note below, asked for permission to post the words to the song with the video. You’ll find them below, and so far as I know this is the first time they’ve been made public.

Enjoy the clip:

Caustic Casanova, “A Bailar Con Cuarentena” official video

Order now: http://lnk.spkr.media/caustic-casanova-2022

Directed and animated by Jase Harper (Jaseharper.com)
Videography and headbanging by Chris Joao

´A Bailar Con Cuarentena´, our first song with a title entirely en español, is one of the weirdest Caustic Casanova songs ever. It has a fairly interesting history. It’s the first Caustic Casanova song I’m aware of that started with lyrics first. I built the riffs around the words, and then altered the delivery of the words around Stefanie’s drum ideas. As a result of that intricate words-riffs-drums interplay the song is firing on all cylinders, rhythmically speaking, at every moment.

Stefanie initially didn’t like the song, and didn’t want to go through with finishing it, but I insisted that it would eventually be great if we pushed and pushed. During the pandemic we had a lot of time to work on it and hammer out its numerous difficulties. Stefanie harbored some concern that the tune wouldn’t be heavy, but when Jake got his hands on the bass and drum music after nearly a year of separation among us, he unleashed his crackling fuzz and octave-down fury all over it, turning it into one of the heaviest and most over the top Caustic Casanova songs ever, especially at the end. It’s easily the most challenging live song we’ve ever written — from a physical playing standpoint, it requires the entire band to be locked in and focused for every moment. The material is that demanding.

The lyrics were, at first, about something else (and the title was about dancing with a shark, not dancing with the quarantine). I never intended to write a song about the year 2020 and being stuck at home with an infectious disease panicking the shut-in multitudes. But so many lines that were written pre-pandemic seemed so strangely perfect for a pandemic era song that I eventually got rid of everything that didn’t fit with the theme and filled it out as the album’s “quarantine song.” In the end, it’s probably my favorite set of lyrics I’ve ever written.

The music video, another collaboration with our long time artist Jase Harper, is our first foray into animation and live action combined. It visually represents the fact that we’re sometimes a live trio, with Stefanie, Jake, and me, and sometimes a live four piece with Andrew. Since he lives in upstate New York and we’re in Maryland, we simply can’t get together as often as we’d like for shows and tours. In this video, Andrew plays a sun and moon god figure, a man trapped in a celestial body, desperately trying to re-assume his true human form and join his band for some riffs upon a jungle altar of madness. I never thought about this until just now, but it’s a good representation of all of us coming out of quarantine, learning to become real humans and functioning musicians and music fans again.
— Francis

Lyrics:
A Bailar Con Cuarentena
Words: Beringer
Music: Zaenker / Kimberley / Beringer

It’s business in the front, and piety in the back
The autozone messiah says come on in let’s have a snack
We’re grilling sacred cows, it’s conquistador cuisine
A bailar con quarantine urges our spanglish language magazine

Another incantation from the half-mad cocatrice
Peaceful defenestration from the rock band name police

We’re sipping mental champagne with the shut in multitudes
Meanwhile Satan lost your records in the hospital of doom

I am patiently and eagerly awaiting word from my captors, madam
We are patiently and eagerly awaiting some type of signal from your people, madam

This news is big if true

Something sinister’s sweeping through the people of this planet who aren’t you

Logorrhea’s soothing pace and timbre
Well the lager’s crisp, have a refreshing amber
And I’m glued to the seat by God again
Glued to the screen by God, amen! Amen!

In perfect appalaichanese
He said docs don’t know they spread disease
But with perfect ideology
It’s impossible to spread disease

Rattlesnake, rattlesnake why your teeth so white?
Been living in the bottom so damn long all I know how to do is bite

All I do is, all I do is, all I know how to do is bite

Caustic Casanova are:
Francis Beringer – Bass/Vocals
Stefanie Zaenker – Drums/Vocals
Andrew Yonki – Guitar
Jake Kimberley – Guitar

Caustic Casanova website

Caustic Casanova on Facebook

Caustic Casanova on Instagram

Caustic Casanova on Bandcamp

Magnetic Eye Records on Bandcamp

Magnetic Eye Records website

Magnetic Eye Records on Facebook

Chesapeake progressive noise rockers Caustic Casanova will launch a tour on Sept. 10 headed out west to Monolith on the Mesa — kudos to the Taos, New Mexico-based festival for understanding what to-date mostly Maryland Doom Fest has known and a whole bunch of others are going to find out shortly — and as they continue to herald the upcoming Oct. 7 release of their new album, Glass Enclosed Nerve Center on Magnetic Eye Records, a second single from the record emerges in the form of “Anubis Rex.” The opener follows behind “Lodestar” and brings post-hardcore vibes front and center as well as a whole bunch of ‘firsts’ for the band as bassist/vocalist Francis Beringer notes in the comment below. You can hear that Thin Lizzy for sure, along with some ’00s emo, the pedal steel and a lot, a lot, a lot of shove. It’s a mover, it’s about love, and it’s gonna be stuck in your head for the rest of the day. If you’re lucky.

I’m slated to review and stream Glass Enclosed Nerve Center on Oct. 5, but before we get there I’ll tell you happily I can’t put the record down, and I can think of only one other album so far in 2022 that’s had such an effect on my passive and active listening habits, and as I start to think about album-of-the-year-type conversations, that weighs heavily. Glass Enclosed Nerve Center is a strong contender in that regard for me — it also runs away with the best song I’ve heard this year in the 22-minute finale “Bull Moose Against the Sky” — so if you haven’t gotten hyped up on it yet, “Anubis Rex” represents it well as the leadoff.

And pretty much I’m making this post to say exactly that.

Have fun:

CAUSTIC CASANOVA unveil new single ‘Anubis Rex’ taken from forthcoming album “Glass Enclosed Nerve Center” on Magnetic Eye Records

CAUSTIC CASANOVA gleefully present their eclectic best sides on the second new single, ‘Anubis Rex’. The track is taken from the Washington D.C.-based riff-rockers’ forthcoming album “Glass Enclosed Nerve Center”. The full-length has been scheduled for release on October 7.

The twisted new song opens with a country-style guitar slide and sports the Latin title ‘Anubis Rex’ (“King Anubis”), and refers to the Egyptian god of death rites. On their fifth album, the brain-frying “Glass Enclosed Nerve Center”, Washington, DC-based riffonauts CAUSTIC CASANOVA pull an expansive range of sounds into their tight, hyperkinetic core – and explode them outward in a kaleidoscope of progressive heavy rock exuberance. In ferocious opposition to playing music in an established style that might give listeners a way in but can narrow down what’s allowable, the foursome plant their flag dramatically on the side of genre-agnostic exploration. Simply put, the Americans allow each song to go wherever the hell it wants (or needs) to head towards.

CAUSTIC CASANOVA comment: “This is the first song that we wrote entirely in our new four-piece line-up, featuring the at the time new member Jake Kimberley on guitar as it goes way back to spring 2019. For the first time, we are using extended sections of dual guitar harmonies. It’s also our first song with synthesizer keyboards and our first original track featuring guest instrumentalist Howard Parker on pedal steel guitar. Actually, we kept his first take for the record. Furthermore, it is our first song with obvious country music influences as well as our first time with a clear Thin Lizzy influence. Finally, it is a first that we are doing overtly and without question a love song. This song exemplifies everything that we are doing well – in terms of genre-smashing and riff rock rhythmic excess, while still breaking new creative ground for us regarding melodies and arrangements. Long-time fans will note the sonic resemblance to another album opener, which is also my other favorite song, ‘Thundersnow’ on breaks. Those similarities are intentional. I see both songs as two parts of the same hopeful, uplifting, and heavy prog-pop spectacle.”

Caustic Casanova “Glass Enclosed Nerve Center”
Out October 7th on Magnetic Eye Records

Preorder:
worldwide: http://en.spkr.media
US/Canada: http://us.spkr.media

Hitting the road with The Obsessed and Ecstatic Vision, then coming home to a lovely shindig with King Buffalo and labelmates Heavy Temple!

9/10 – Louisville, KY at Portal at Fifteentwelve Creative Compound*
9/11 – Des Moines, IA at Lefty’s Live Music*
9/12 – St. Paul, MN at NorthStar Bar and Grill*
9/13 – Madison, WI at BarleyPop Live*
9/14 – St. Louis, MO at Red Flag*
9/16 – Taos, NM at Monolith on the Mesa*
9/29 – Baltimore, MD at Ottobar^

*w/ The Obsessed, Ecstatic Vision
^w/ King Buffalo, Heavy Temple

Caustic Casanova are:
Francis Beringer – Bass/Vocals
Stefanie Zaenker – Drums/Vocals
Andrew Yonki – Guitar
Jake Kimberley – Guitar

http://causticcasanova.com/
https://www.facebook.com/CausticCasanova
https://www.instagram.com/CausticCasanova/

http://store.merhq.com
http://magneticeyerecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MagneticEyeRecords

Caustic Casanova, “Anubis Rex”

You could sit down five times to try to describe Caustic Casanova‘s sound and come up with five completely different takes. And that’s why it’s fun. Unpredictable in their post-grunge, noise-rock-informed, heavy indie individualism, the now-four-piece will issue Glass Enclosed Nerve Center, their new full-length, on Oct. 7 through Magnetic Eye Records. It’s their second album for the label behind 2019’s God How I Envy the Deaf (review here) and though it’s been done since last November, with full schedules, pressing and shipping delays and whatnot, 11 months from one end to the other (plus studio time) might just be how long it takes to make a record now. I’d call it a brave new world, but it’s really more like Soylent Green.

Alas, new Caustic Casanova will invariably help. They’re streaming the track “Lodestar” now and you can hear that below, and even in its three-minute span you can hear why Caustic Casanova are the square peg in the round hole of genre classification. There is supposed to be a video coming out as well, I think today, so when and if that happens I’ll add that here [EDIT: It’s down there now.]. But in the meantime, the album cover and particulars are below, as yoinked from Bandcamp. Also of note, they’ll be at Monolith of the Mesa in September.

Dig this art:

Caustic Casanova – Glass Enclosed Nerve Center

Preorder: https://causticcasanova.bandcamp.com/album/glass-enclosed-nerve-center

On their fifth album, the brain-frying “Glass Enclosed Nerve Center”, Washington, DC-based riffonauts CAUSTIC CASANOVA pull an expansive range of sounds into their tight, hyperkinetic core – and explode them outward in a kaleidoscope of progressive heavy rock exuberance. Formed in 2005 as the trio consisting of drummer and vocalist Stefanie Zaekner, bass-player and singer Francis Beringer, and guitarist Andrew Yonki, CAUSTIC CASANOVA’s chose a path to constantly refine their thrillingly unpredictable music, which careens from sardonic noise rock to proggy sludge in the vein of BARONESS, RED FANG, and TORCHE, while also taking inspiration from the gargantuan heft of MELVINS to BORIS, and fleet guitar heroics with flashes of dark-hued post-punk.

With the addition of second guitarist Jake Kimberley in 2019, the now-quartet set their sights on making the most adventurous and prog-rock CAUSTIC CASANOVA record yet. “Glass Enclosed Nerve Center” underscores all their strengths while making the most of the expanded line-up that opened up their sound to new possibilities. Beringer’s reedy, melodic bass dances heavily alongside the two frying guitars to empower a trio of lead voices. Zaenker’s percussion is powerfully inventive across the album’s five expansive songs, sounding equally at home in swinging, Bill Ward stomp as in math-rock jitteriness.

Long-time travelers in CAUSTIC CASANOVA’s orbit will doubtless find “Glass Enclosed Nerve Center” an exhilarating welcome back that includes the ambitiously sprawling, 22-minute epic ‘Bull Moose against the Sky’ which occupies the album’s entire B-side. Yet those who are new to the massive sound of these raging psychedelic sludge buffaloes will find outstanding songcraft and rich storytelling that is worth every second and countless repeat spins. Three, two, one… go!

Tracklisting:
Side A
1. Anubis Rex
2. Lodestar
3. A Bailar Con Cuarentena
4. Shrouded Coconut
Side B
5. Bull Moose Against The Sky

Buy at our shop here:
worldwide: http://en.spkr.media
US/Canada: http://us.spkr.media

Caustic Casanova live:
July 16: Holler of Doom II, London, KY w/ StormToker, Book of Wyrms and many others!

July 31: Cafe 611, Frederick, MD w/ The Obsessed, Strange Highways, Weed Coughin and Crow Hunter.

August 6: DC Brau, Washington, DC w/ Valkyrie

After that: TOUR BABY TOUR

Caustic Casanova are:
Francis Beringer – Bass/Vocals
Stefanie Zaenker – Drums/Vocals
Andrew Yonki – Guitar
Jake Kimberley – Guitar

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Caustic Casanova, “Lodestar” official video

Caustic Casanova, Glass Enclosed Nerve Center (2022)