Review Summary: Cane Hill return with another good album but still can't break into the next tier.
After over a 6 year gap, broken up by a few EPs, Cane Hill have finally returned with their follow up to Too Far Gone. Cane Hill have always occupied this weird spot in the metal world. Always producing quality material but seemingly never ever able to break into the Great tier. Their debut Smile showed the band had potential and Too Far Gone was an obvious evolution and expansion of their Slipknot inspired sound but it also showed Cane Hill could write some great melodies. So after 6 years, how does Cane Hill fare?
A Piece of Me I Never Let You Find strips away much of the Slipknot influence for a more modern style of production and songwriting. The band had already started this pivot with the Krewe EPs but they fully buy into it on this record. Lead single The Midnight Sun might be the perfect distillation of the band Cane Hill have become, combining this more atmospheric approach with the sheer aggression of their first two records. This continues on Ecstacy in Grief bringing back their fast paced riffs reminiscent of the title track from Too Far Gone. But where Cane Hill have always shined is in their great sense of melody, especially thanks to Elijah Witt's growth as a clean vocalist most notably on Drowning Therapy and I Always Knew We Were Doomed. He has always been the unsung hero of the band with his versatile range and melody writing. However, his screams and growls have noticeably degraded release over release, particularly in the lower register. That may be why overall there's far more clean singing on this record than previous albums.
After Drowning Therapy, the album takes a bit of a dip in quality. Eye to Eye (Iris) and Permanence in Sleep are fine tracks on their own but can't help but feel especially derivative to a lot of mainstream Alt-Metal being played on radio and How Could You Lose is by far the weakest and least memorable track on the album. There's also the oddity of Fade being on here twice (Although that seems to be more due to the label requiring both the radio edit and album version to be on the record) which is a shame because Fade (Into You) might just be the best song here but can come off as lazy filler. The album does end on a better note with Finding Euphoria and the aforementioned Fade (Into You) bringing back some of the aggression and energy of the first half.
A Piece of Me I Never Let You Find is a good return after a few years of relative inactivity but ultimately continues Cane Hill's trend of putting out good to very good records but not being able to take that next step. While tracks like The Midnight Sun and Drowning Therapy show the band willing to adapt their sound to the time and be successful at it, much of the second half fails to reach those same heights but does pick up again right at the end. Whether Cane Hill will continue in this direction remains to be seen but A Piece of Me I Never Let You Find shows that throughout every shift in direction, Cane Hill will continue to put out good material.
