And from the land down under (just kidding), comes this veteran trio, CAULDRON BLACK RAM, thundering with "Stalagmire", their new album. And besides it's nothing new, it's good.

The band makes that old and good Black / Death Metal formula: low grunts on vocals, distorted and low tune riffs (guitar solos shows some melodies and good arrangements sometimes), and good drums' work. But the instrumental arrangements have some modern and non Death Metal. So, the old Death Metal manual gained some rewritten lines to them. And it's good, but just a bit above the mean line that separate good and bad works.

The production is somewhat putrid and raw the way Death Metal fans will love, but without making the album sound like a confusing massive chaos. So, it's not difficult to understand what instruments are playing. But sometimes, a second guitar seems to help (yes, they seem to recorded the album with just one rhythm guitar).

And the highlights on the album are: "Fork Through Pitch" (see some influences from modern sounds coming from riffs), the slow funeral called "Maw" (but it gains some fast moments just after its middle), "From Whence the Old Skull Came", and "Speliogenesis" (in which the melodies arose strongly).

Maybe "Stalagmire" is meant to be a transition album, so, let's hope for a better one soon.