INTERVIEW: Back From Hell - Caliban's Return to Form, Ferocity and Fire

Caliban aren’t interested in nostalgia. With Back From Hell, the German metalcore veterans have taken a hard look at who they are and what still drives them. The result is their most focused and uncompromising record in years. Built on self-reflection, frustration and a desire to cut through the noise, this album doesn’t reinvent the band. It recentres them.

For lead guitarist Marc Görtz, the creative fire behind this album wasn’t sparked by momentum, but rather by discontent. “I wasn’t happy with the previous album,” he admits. “It felt lost in the details. At first, I thought it was good, but that faded quickly. It just didn’t feel worthy of the Caliban name.”

That lingering dissatisfaction became the driving force behind Back From Hell, pushing the band to create what Marc calls a “milestone” record; one that distills the essence of Caliban while introducing new life. “We wanted something honest, something straightforward. It still sounds like us, but with new spices. It’s pure Caliban.” The band approached writing with fresh intent, treating every track like it could stand alone as a single. Early demos like ‘Till Death Do Us Part’ and ‘Back From Hell’ quickly set the tone - direct, heavy, and emotionally grounded. “They’ve got hardcore energy, old-school metalcore roots, and something new too,” Marc says. “But more than anything, they just get to the point.”

Part of that sharpness came from focusing on frontman Andy Dörner’s vocal delivery, building songs around his renewed intensity. “Andy’s voice is in pristine condition right now,” says bassist Iain Duncan. “There’s so much emotion in the way he performs. This album gave him room to really show that.” To help tap into that energy, the band brought in a new vocal coaching team who pushed Andy to dig deeper and reconnect with the fire of earlier records. “We didn’t want him to fall into a routine,” Marc explains. “They encouraged him to blend the old aggression with the strength he has now.”

The result is an album that feels both familiar and fresh, steeped in history, but not beholden to it. And while its themes are rooted in emotional truth, Back From Hell avoids the overwrought or overly polished. “We didn’t really scrap anything,” Iain says. “This wasn’t about tearing things down, it was about refining. It was like, ‘This part works, but what if we do this instead?’ We just kept pushing ideas until everything felt exactly right.”

That push-and-pull between bandmates created a kind of creative think-tank; an environment where ideas evolved instead of being erased. “Marc and I would bring stuff to the table and shape it together,” Iain adds. “Everyone had input. There was a real consensus, but also room to experiment.”

That mindset extended to the album’s production. Rather than following the clean, ultra-compressed trend dominating modern metalcore, Caliban went the other way, embracing a raw, dirtier tone that echoes their early 2000's sound, while still sounding massive. “We were testing it out with the first singles,” Marc explains. “One was super rough, the next more polished, and then ‘Guilt Trip’ landed in the middle. That became the blueprint. We wanted to keep the aggression - make sure the energy didn’t get lost.”

Even once tracks were mixed, they weren’t afraid to walk things back. “At one point I told Iain a version of a track had lost its drive,” Marc recalls. “So we went back and made it rougher. It’s a fine line, but I think we landed on the sound that best represents this record.”

The final version, now remastered and unified across streaming platforms ahead of its April 25th release, captures that perfect middle ground: sharp, immediate, and alive.

That same sense of revival stretches into the live sphere, too. After nearly seven years away, Caliban are finally returning to the UK. It’s a long-awaited reunion; one the band is eager to embrace. “It’s been way too long,” Marc says. “Even though it’s only three shows right now, we’re already talking about coming back for a longer UK run. Scotland, Ireland, we want to do the whole thing if we can.”

Fans have already begun sharing memories online, with some recalling shows from as far back as 2008. For the band, the reaction has been emotional. “It feels like a high school reunion in the best way,” Iain laughs. “To reconnect with people who’ve been with the band all these years, that means everything.”

The live show promises a mix of eras; songs from ‘Back From Hell’, deep cuts, crowd favourites, and a few surprises along the way. “The set is really diverse,” Marc promises. “We’ve got some blasts from the past, some evergreens, and obviously a lot of the new stuff. It’s going to be heavy, and it’s going to be fun.”

But, perhaps the most surprising moment of the Back From Hell era came from a song that wasn’t even supposed to exist. ‘Echoes’ was born out of a late-night demo Marc sent the band while they were already deep into vocal sessions in Cologne. “I’d just finished ‘I Was A Happy Kid Once’ and sent them this thing I’d been working on,” Marc recalls. “It came together in minutes; one of those moments where you don’t stop until it’s done. I was really hyped.”

The rest of the band were instantly sold. “We were in the studio, working on something else,” says Iain, “and the demo just dropped into the group chat. Everyone stopped. We were like, ‘Okay, we’re doing this now.’” The timing was uncanny. The word echoes had already been floating around the lyric sheets for weeks, tied to long conversations between Iain and Andy about personal trauma and emotional release. The new demo gave those words a place to live.

“It just clicked,” Iain says. “We pulled the lyrics together, wrote the track in two days, and decided on the spot that it would be the next single.” It’s a perfect example of what makes Back From Hell so compelling: nothing is wasted, everything is intentional - somehow, even the unplanned moments fell in line.

That creative energy was amplified by the people surrounding the band during recording. The team wasn’t just in-house; it was a rotating circle of vocalists, producers and old friends who helped shape the album without diluting the band’s core vision. “We switched studios and built a completely different team around us,” Iain explains. “There were so many people involved who aren’t in Caliban, but who brought something to the process.” From Dave of Vitja, who ran the studio and Matty from Nasty, to Buster from Thrown, Nahuel from Mental Cruelty, Benny Richter, and Callan from Dream on Dreamer, the sessions felt more like a creative collective than a traditional band setup.

“It wasn’t about co-writing or anything like that,” Iain says. “It was about being surrounded by people who get it. Sometimes someone would hear a riff and just say, ‘That’s cool.’ And that spark was enough.”

Back From Hell marks a clear shift for Caliban. It’s not about returning to form, It’s about reshaping it. After years of refining, rebuilding and rethinking what their band should sound like, they’ve landed on something that feels more honest and more deliberate. It’s a reinvention, but one that makes complete sense.

Back From Hell will be released on April 25th 2025 via Century Media Records.

Words: Vee Richardson

Photos: Caliban