Interviews About Albums: CAULDRON - Suicide In The City (2023)

In this new interview, we sat down with the UK Metalcore band CAULDRON to ask some questions about their album "Suicide In The City". 

1. What can you say about this new EP/CD?

Frazer: Everything we’ve done as a band has led to us creating this record. In the past, we’ve hinted at broader concepts in our songs before so it only made sense that we’d level that up, and create a whole record based on a concept. I’ve always loved concept records. There is something about portraying a narrative story through music that is really intriguing to me. Some of my favorite concept albums of note are Coheed’s In Keeping Secrets, Fightstar’s Grand Unification and Say Anything’s In Defence of the Genre. This record is heavier than we’ve ever been, yet far more melodic and refined. We’ve drawn from far more influences this time around, from dream pop to emo, from Crowbar to Fleetwood Mac, which may sound very eclectic, but we feel we’ve pulled it off in a way that sounds consistent and natural.

2. What is the meaning of the EP/CD name?

Frazer: The title is the album title and also the title for the story the album is based on, one I dreamt up during lockdown when I really needed something to occupy my time. The title sums up the overall feel of the record. It’s a very sad and upsetting record, whilst at the same time it has this brutality to it that anyone who’s ever considered taking their own life would recognize.

3. Which one is the composer of the CD/EP?

In the band, (Frazer) and Zak (drums) tend to start all of the songs ourselves and get the structures down, and then we build upon them as a full band. This has definitely been our most collaborative record by far, where previously myself and Zak would have written the entirety of the song, there are songs on this where Dec has taken the lead on writing which has been great. It’s our first full release with Dec in the band so it’s been great writing with him and seeing how our sound develops.

4. If you had to pick one song, which one would you pick?

Frazer: Difficult question because this album is very much meant to be heard in its entirety from start to finish. I personally believe that Kingdom is the best song I’ve ever written, and definitely the song I’m most proud of, so I’d probably choose that one.

Zak: I’d have to go with Rejection Pact or Balcony as a 2nd choice. Both these songs do a good job of encapsulating the overall experience of the album with Frazer’s lyrics as well as the instrumentation.

5. Is there a special message in this EP/CD? If there is what it is?

Ultimately there is no special message, this record is very bleak and hopeless. There is a line in the short poem I wrote at the end of Rejection Pact that states “This story has no happy ending” which is very much the case for the record.

6. Are there some lyrics that you'd love to share?

Fraser: I personally love the lyrics to Are We? I think they’re really unconventional for us and I think the story on this really shines through.

7. Which inspirations have been important for this album? Like musically or friends, family, someone you'd love to thank especially?

Zak: Musically speaking the album is an amalgamation of a bunch of different influences. Some bands we really like that influence the sound either obviously or not are Remembering Never, My Chem, The Used, Fightstar, Suicide Silence, Misery Signals, Poison the Well, Veil of Maya, Armor for Sleep, Silverstein, Architects, Eighteen Visions and a bunch more.

A great source of inspiration comes from the bands we are surrounded by and have played with over the years. There’s no greater motivator for me personally than seeing someone do something better than we can do it, and there are a lot of amazing bands in our genre right now. It really makes me want to push ourselves to make the best music we can.

8. Something to add?

Thank you to anyone who’s supported this band and thank you to all our amazing friends that have bent over backwards to help us out over the years.