Modern metal with actual interludes?

This past week I was presented with the debut EP Caves from the LA-based five-piece Elitist. Now, I’m no good when it comes to figuring out what overly complex genre the group would most likely fall under. For metal, that’s quite a feat these days.

They’re heavy as hell, unrelenting, yet very melodic; they incorporate odd time signatures, and the vocal style is the usual deathcore stuff—somewhat guttural sounding, but not as deep as say, genre contemporary Whitechapel.

With as many time signatures that the band covers, the entire EP flows extremely well. There is a lot of use of old recording studio trickery such as fade-ins and fade-outs, so I often find myself unaware that I’m no longer listening to the same song I was two minutes ago. This can be a good or bad thing. While I find the flow makes for a cohesive listening experience, another person might feel like there’s a lack of variety.

Then again, if you listen to this type of music, you probably don’t expect or want any ballads. This EP is nonstop beautiful brutality for five tracks.

Describing the music itself will be challenging, but I’m up to the task. There is a lot of machine-gun rhythm guitar and percussionist Robert Platz’s drum work is performed with surgical precision. The guitar riffs and leads are traded off between guitarists Sean Hall and Julian Rodriguez; they are very technically proficient and welcomingly more complex than what similar bands usually offer, but honestly, I didn’t feel like they presented anything too special or new. To their credit, the sound as a whole is very tight. As a rule, I can seldom tolerate drop B guitar tuning because it just sounds too floppy and indistinguishable, but Elitist has managed to drop-tune ultra-low while still keeping the overall sound tight and crisp—quite the accomplishment.

Elitist brings something very unique to the table with their eerie and gorgeous guitar ambience that is sprinkled throughout the record. It’s an odd comparison, but gamers will probably notice similarities between these bits and the soundtrack from the Metroid video game series. These sections evoke feelings of vast, empty, dark spaces. Yes, I’ll make the obvious and all too cheesy observation: It’s hard to not imagine being alone in a dark cave during these moments. Perhaps this is what the album name is derived from, which is so obvious that Elitist should lose points for underestimating the intelligence of their audience that much more.

Overall, I’d highly recommend this EP to any modern metal fan. If you’re one of those weirdos who has an ear for strange time signatures and rhythms, or if you’re a junkie for technical guitar and drum work, then you won’t want to miss Caves.