We first got sucked into the magic that is Caustic Casanova with the release of the trio of Pantheon EP’s which we mentioned in our review for their last badass beast called God How I Envy The Deaf (Released in 2019 and can be read all about right here) and can safely say that it’s no small task to follow ALL of that up. But the quartet from Washington, D.C. managed to do just that with their fifth LP that looks like an EP but sounds like a double LP. Get all that? You will!
There’s a lot to digest in just five tracks on the latest from Caustic Casanova. Is it even an “album”, you say? Well, when every track is an experience and the final two tracks contain the bulk of the hefty almost 45 minutes runtime (“Bull Moose Against The Sky” alone closing the record with an especially hearty 22 minutes of unfiltered CC Rawk) of modern Prog Rawk then you’ll get why that argument feels moot.
A glorious noise starts off these proceedings and, let us tell YOU, there is no song in the CC library so far that has matched the majesty of “Anubis Rex”. The song is as much a celebration as it is a reintroduction as we collectively march towards the new normal with Francis Beringer and Stefanie Zænker triumphantly declaring their intent amidst Andrew Yonki and Jake Kimberley’s flourishing guitar sounds while “Lodestar” is a nasty sounding ditty offset by Zænker and Beringer’s heavenly delivery in the vocal department as their respective drum and bass playing practically bounce off each other as Kimberley and Yonki roll out the riffage.
“A Bailar Con Cuarentena” is a swirly Rawk spectacular that really sees the band lean into some more Prog elements especially with the way the guitars interact and intersect with “Shrouded Coconut” coming in next with a grand rollickin’ jam that’s the penultimate punch bringing a focused instrumental fury for the first half and a whimsical way out trip during the latter end. Glass Enclosed… culminates with the aforementioned massive moodpiece called “Bull Moose Against The Sky” that comes together like Sonic Youth doing Desert Rawk for a low end heavy grimy and gritty magnum opus that’s a tantalizing tenet and then some. Beringer begins it all with Zænker eventually accompanying for a rousing vocal harmony before a percussive force akin to a drum line comes in with glimmers of glistening strums from Yonki and Kimberley make their way into this burgeoning brute that’s a 20+ minute affair to remember.
Glass Enclosed Nerve Center lands through Magnetic Eye Records on October 7th and can be pre-ordered and pre-saved NOW by heading here. For the latest on Caustic Casanova, follow the trail of socials by clicking here, here, or here.