El Caco is a Norwegian rock band that debuted in 2001. The band first came to my attention a few years ago when they were touted by Metal Hammer as a band to keep an eye on. When I finally got round to listening to the then current album The Search it was more than a little disappointing with its run of the mill modern hard rock approach that lay somewhere between QotSA, Tool and Nickelback.

2009 sees the band release their fifth album Heat and while it is a bit better than its predecessors that’s still not saying very much. The music is mostly a mixture of whatever hard rock style is currently popular. So you have the occasional Southern riff, the odd Tool like texture and more than a few Nickelback type choruses. It’s all very middle of the road and even the heavy riffs sound like diluted versions of what Alice in Chains and Soundgarden were doing in their prime. There are songs that show some promise and potential but overall the band fails to keep the songs interesting and too often simply end up sounding like a bunch of other bands.

I’d mention a few really good tracks like I usually do but there aren’t any on Heat. This is some really banal rock music. Tool raise their head on just about every song on Heat and one listen to Individuals and 13,000 will prove that El Caco are huge Tool fans. There isn’t as much QotSA as there used to be in the band’s sound and that is a good thing but mixing Tool, stoner grooves and radio friendly choruses is not very appealing either. The frustrating part about the whole thing is that the band occasionally hits on a pretty good riff or groove but it doesn’t last as they seem far too immersed in penning lightweight hard rock that users on last.fm can tag with groove metal. Yes, there is a groove but no, it’s not metal.

Anyway, regardless of my disinterest in El Caco the band seems to have built up a fairly solid fan base and Heat is the latest album in a discography that holds up banality as its chief selling point. Go figure.

Year of Release - 2009