Album Review: Calva Louise - Edge of the Abyss
Reviewed by Rob Barker
Ah Calva Louise. I’ve been lucky enough to see this three-piece live fairly recently, and by total accident. Trust me, they hold up. Both musically and visually impressive, flaunting nigh-on unreal, can’t-look-away ability and talent, whilst not making this showcase of skill the only thing to reflect on. Edge of the Abyss has had a few of it’s track out on Spotify and the like for a few weeks now, and I’ve given them a listen a few times with anticipation for the entire album coming out. I’ll go through the album track by track, but first impressions were good with this one, and I was very pleased with what I heard of the whole thing.
Edge of the Abyss starts off with Tunnel Vision, immediately heavy, weird and aggressive. The start reminded me of the opening of The Mars Volta’s Bedlam in Goliath in it’s startling, no fucks given abrasiveness. Not only are you thrown in, you’re thrown in kicking and screaming. The blend of beautiful clean vocals interspersed with throat-splitting screams truly makes for an unpredictable and artful listen – a statement that actually can cover the album as a whole as well as just the intro track; one of my favourite tracks of the album to kick off with. The intensity continues into WTF, an unrestrained outcry of rage and anxiety.
Aimless has more of a focus on the cleaner vocals, but this by no means makes it tame; those already established hellish screams will come in jump-scare style, don’t you worry. Following this, a shift to Spanish language vocals for the very powerful Lo Que Vale by vocalist (and guitarist and keyboardist, yep) Jess Allanic.
Impeccable is definitely one more along the electronica lines than any so far on the album, at times with an almost Nu Metal vibe to it (but please don’t take that as a bad thing). Kind of a cool darkwave/dance-metal track with some heavy Latin vibes, flowing nicely into Barely a Response, which continues to bring the more dance-music (or similar) feels. The Abyss keeps the heavier synth tracks going, with Tubular Bells meets Stranger Things in feeling. In fact, The Abyss is just a really cool track in general. Third in a line-up of noticeably more electronica-inspired tracks, this one has an almost hard-house feel to it, if The Addam’s Family went all Mr Fingers.
El Umbral twists and turns pay homage to System of a Down, in both vocals and general songwriting. Almost laugh-out-loud shifts in dynamics between burst-an-eyeball screams and whimsical piano-led jazz. There’s a Muse-like synth riff going off in the background of this track for us to enjoy as well, which is welcome. This makes way into La Corriente; a really solid and heavy track, with a most Peaches-like taunt/chant vocals at times. Really goes hard in places.
Hate In me is a particularly abrasive one, befitting the title. The ballsiest of ballsy riffs (and what a fucking guitar tone!), more split-personality shifts between technical piano-lead bridges and sheer power. My favourite track of the album. The final track of Edge of the Abyss is Under the Skin, an absolutely venomous end to a journey of an album.
Although Calva Louise formed and are based right here in the UK, you’d struggle to find a band whose members are from further corners of the globe to one another. UK-based, but about as international as you can get (France, Venezuela and New Zealand, I believe) – and wow this comes through in the stylings of their music. Such a massive spectrum of different sounds, influences and musical goings-on throughout the entire album. Really cool.
My favourite CD as a late teenager/early twenties metal kid by a long way was The Trees Are Dead by Sikth, mostly for the unpredictability, the outstanding technical ability, and the totally off-the-charts composition style compared to other music I knew at the time. Listening to Edge of the Abyss reminds me of when I first heard Trees, wondering what on earth could be coming around the corner, not in terms of next song, but next section of song, next half-a-second’s worth of music. Edge of the Abyss really goes places that, even once you’ve sussed out the overall feeling of it, will take you by surprise. This is trendy and current-metal-sounding enough to be accessible to those who may be a bit new to the stranger side of music, yet simultaneously proggy, art-rocky and out-there enough to keep the interest of the discerning listener out for more than just a cookie-cutter throwaway band.
If I’d have listened to Edge of the Abyss before I’d seen Calva Louise live, a sceptical part of me would wonder if they had the ability to maintain the heaviness of their recorded music into their live performance – it really goes hard at places that makes you think, wow, this is only a three-piece and they’re absolutely tearing things up out here. Incidentally, for anyone who hasn’t caught them live, do, as they can both walk the walk and talk the talk in terms of their live show. They have a string of dates in late 2025 around Europe and the UK with Stray from the Path, just saying.
Really, really am a big fan of this. Nay-sayers and traditionalists who are against a bit of electronica in their metal, I’d implore you to give this a go, as you’d really have to be stuck in your ways to not be impressed by this. For those who know Calva Louise, you won’t be disappointed.
Give it a go if you’re a fan of – Dream State, Sikth, Lake Malice, The Fall of Troy
Excellent comparison to that Sikth album, you’re right in that the Calva Louise stuff is an absolute rollercoaster in terms of ‘where the hell is this going to go’.
They feel like one of these bands, a lot like Muse, where you watch them live and go ‘oh man, these guys are PROPER musicians’ – incredibly thoughtful, passionate and wild stuff they are doing. Love it.