A New Day For Cave Of Swimmers Rises With "The Sun"
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When Invisible Oranges premiered Cave Of Swimmers’s Reflection in 2015, the Miami, Florida duo were rich in potential, but couldn’t open the vault. Guitarist G.E. Perez and drummer Arturo García were unmistakable talents; both were skilled musicians whose greatest strength was their taste.
Perez, in addition to being a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, is a shredder in the 1980s mold, capable of building thrilling solos without losing himself in technique. If Perez stood out because of his similarity to the past, García was memorable for his difference from it. Unlike most metal drummers who feel like they’re playing down and through their instrument, García plays as if he’s living inside it, pulling out fills as if they’d been hanging from a pantry. The two made complimentary foils, and in the album’s best moments the combination of golden age metal leads and razor-sharp syncopation sounded like little else.
The problem is that, as a whole, Reflection dragged, running into roadblocks any time it slowed in tempo. Though the band’s musicianship made these doom sections functional, Cave of Swimmers never made them come alive on this debut.
Since then, the band have released The Sun, which focuses entirely on what Cave of Swimmers do best. The “synths and Sabbath riffs” approach which filled so much space on Reflection is gone, replaced with a melodic urgency more in line with thrash and power metal. You can watch the brand new video for the single’s titular song below.
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This quicker pace is a much better fit for Perez’s full bodied voice and dramatic tone, but, unlike a lot of power metal singers who pay the bills by moving a lot of air, Perez never sounds stuffy or over-coached. “The Sun” sounds like it’s happening right in front of you. Cave of Swimmers aren’t beaming in from space, and the music video highlights this by putting their two-man game front and center. This immediacy and palpable chemistry makes the moments where they truly start cooking in the song’s bridge, or when the song launches into orbit on a “I can’t believe you went there” key change, all the more special.
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You can catch Cave of Swimmers on tour at the following dates:
Friday 3/2 St Pete, FL @ FUBAR
Saturday 3/3 Athens, GA @ CALEDONIA LOUNGE
Sunday 3/4 Huntsville, AL @ COPPER TOP DIVE N DINE
Monday 3/5 Nashville, TN @ SPRINGWATER
Tuesday 3/6 Birmingham, AL @ THE NICK
Thursday 3/8 Houston, TX @ ACADIA
Friday 3/9 Austin, TX @ THE LOST WELL
Saturday 3/10 San Antonio, TX @ FAUST TAVERN
Sunday 3/11 Austin, TX @ KICK BUTT COFFEE
Tuesday 3/13 Wichita, KS @ BARLEYCORN’S
Wednesday 3/14 Fayetteville, AR @ BACKSPACE
Thursday 3/15 Memphis, TN @ ROCKHOUSE LIVE
Friday 3/16 NOLA, LA @ SANTOS
Saturday 3/17 Gainesville, FL @ THE WOOLY
Follow Cave of Swimmers on Facebook.
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