Cave In Albums (7)
'Perfect Pitch Black'
Release Date 9/13/2005
Tracks 10
Label Hydra Head
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Boston's Cave In jumped to RCA and the world of big-time promotion for Antenna, but it's satisfying to hear that their intelligently warped sound has kept its teeth in the transition. Since its inception in 1995, the band has experimented with bizarre free jazz, hair-raising thrash metal, lengthy progressive rock epics, and sweeping proto-ambient guitar modernism. For Antenna, the band worked with the versatile Rich Costey, who has produced everyone from Rival Schools and Audioslave to Jurassic 5 and Philip Glass. Unlike too many major-league producers, Costey didn't grade off Cave In's sound in a quest for popular appeal. Instead, he tightened the confines of the songs without scrimping on Cave In's taste for lyrical and guitar grandeur, or the occasional twinge of metal. Ever since the great leap forward of 2000's Jupiter, Cave In has drawn comparisons to Radiohead. It's certainly true (Antenna's "Inspire" owes a large, large debt to "Paranoid Android"), but it's Foo Fighters' synthesis of metal, punk, and pop that might be Antenna's biggest touchstone. In fact, the single "Anchor" sounds like Foo Fighters covering an imaginary track from OK Computer. The comparison runs deeper. Before his re-emergence as the Foos' fearless leader, Dave Grohl was, of course, Nirvana's drummer. But even before that, Grohl played in Washington, D.C., hardcore outfit Scream. The stylistic twists and turns of Grohl's career somewhat mirror those of Cave In, at least in the sense that both the band and the man have always been willing to seek out new sonic adventures. Grohl must have realized this; Cave In toured Europe with Foo Fighters in early 2003. Samples of each Cave In revolution appear on Antenna. After the relatively straightforward, ethereal rock of the record's opening salvos, "Beautiful Son" takes a left turn into a grassy Brit-pop meadow, only to be followed by the nine-minute prog anthem "Seafrost." In the latter third of the album, "Rubber and Glue," "Youth Overrided," and the somewhat sub-par "Penny Racer" are tightly arranged platforms for Stephen Brodsky's vaguely Brandon Boyd-esque vocals. Throughout, unique, skittering guitar lines recall Jupiter and 2002's Tides of Tomorrow EP, while refusing to let Cave In be railroaded by genre-specific record-industry marketing. Like both Radiohead and Foo Fighters, Cave In is a stylistic chameleon that rarely uses its freewheeling taste as a crutch to present self-indulgent material. That said, only one nine-minute song was a good idea, since it's difficult to sell King Crimson to the kids. ~ Johnny Loftus, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
An undeniable masterpiece, this album met with both praise and disdain from long-term fans upon release. Previously, on their godly Dillinger-esque calculus-core debut, Until Your Heart Stops, Cave In carried tormenting aggression and blended it with creative genius. Signs of avant-garde progression could be seen on tracks like "Juggernaut," but these ideas did not come to fruition until the Creative Eclipses EP. Drawing upon indie rock act Failure, the album shocked some, with its landslide progression toward a Radiohead-meets-hardcore sound. Off-kilter and half bloomed, they failed to reach full potential, until Jupiter, which should engulf the masses. Losing the hardcore vocals almost entirely, except for the emotionally astonishing rasps on "Big Riff," the band has begun to experiment with a gorgeous, emotive Thom Yorke styling. Conveying a patient vulnerability few veteran bands possess, emotional layering seems to form the nucleus of Jupiter. Steve Brodsky's haunting notes break like crashing waves against his lush soundscape of gentle noise, brilliantly exemplified in tracks like "Innuendo and Out the Other" or "In the Stream of Commerce." This last song begins by drowning the listener in meticulous, disharmonic beauty. Suddenly clean channel melodic guitar pours forth, bridging with the centerpiece chorus and cutting through the heart with a sharp emotional blade. This album is 100 percent pure blackened expressionism shrouded in silent shadows. "Requiem," an epic quiet climax, feels like a healthy dose of Brave Murder Day-era Katatonia, both musically and lyrically -- not vocally. Clean picking struggles to stay afloat in a sea of noise as Brodsky belts "Do you feel it's true that you're always this doomed?" This band puts a whole new spin on tormented emotion and broken spirits. Crushing Neurosis, with Dillinger sensibility meets Radiohead as a doom hardcore outfit? Jupiter is captivating and is something imperative for all metal and non-metal fans to behold. Best album of 2000? Maybe. Accessible to all? Probably not. Worth the experience? Definitely! ~ Jason Hundey, All Music Guide
'Until Your Heart Stops'
Release Date 5/20/1999
Tracks 11
Label Hydra Head
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Until Your Heart Stops continues and widens Cave-In's assault upon body and mind. The chugga-chugga chunks are still there, this time refined into escalating and edgy walls of sound that owe a large debt to Slayer. Newly present, however, are forays into psychedelia and noise. At times expansive and at other times dark and claustrophobic, these always aggressive ventures open new doors for Cave-In. When fused with the usual jarring assemblage of riffs, a bold and original heavy music is created. Perhaps the only band who has successfully tread similar ground is Neurosis. Until Your Heart Stops' production is a major force as well; the band's undertakings are captured and conveyed in a way that at times sound impossibly dense, balancing gut-stabbing bottom end with piercing highs. This is one key factor among many that burn away the hardcore framework through which Cave-In originally slipped. ~ Matthew Kantor, All Music Guide
'Beyond Hypothermia'
Release Date 5/20/1999
Tracks 10
Label Hydra Head
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Cave-In's ability to weave different sounds and moods throughout one song is simply uncanny. The band achieves this by deftly assembling multiple riffs and tempos in a manner that recalls Metallica's Master of Puppets. The difference, though, is that Beyond Hypothermia is much more extreme: more riffs, more tempos, and more chaos, screams, and confusion. Additionally, Cave-In draw from a wider pool of influences than Metallica could have at that point: hardcore-styled mosh grooves, evocative strains that recall Split Lip's Midwestern emo, and occasional black/death metal riffing dance atop the traditional foundation of Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. Wherever Beyond Hypothermia goes, though, it remains consistently heavy and cohesive, an additional wonder considering the album is a collection of various sessions. ~ Matthew Kantor, All Music Guide
