Cave In - Heavy Pendulum (2022) Hi-Res

Since their 1998-2005 purple patch, Cave In has had something of a sporadic existence. Initially one of the brightest lights on the post-hardcore scene, the band's sound evolved quickly and constantly over their early years, setting new markers for the sonic possibilities to be found in smart, exploratory heavy music. Always moving along a spectrum of sound that found the band easily shifting between atmospheric, melodic, emotive rock and gritty, growly hardcore, Cave In's albums were always instantly recognizable, but rarely predictable. And then … they stopped. A 2006 hiatus lasted for three years, after which there were some new albums, and then another hiatus in 2011 that lasted three more years and found the band returning to a much more occasional existence. Bassist/vocalist Caleb Scofield's death in 2018 seemed to put a final sort of punctuation to the band's history. However, in paying tribute to Scofield (and raising funds for his family), the band not only put together the 2019 polished-demos mini-LP Final Transmission, but also reoriented themselves to what a new future could be. Strikingly, Heavy Pendulum, their first full-length since 2011's White Silence, aggressively points the band in new sonic directions. Although Scofield's lyrics and riffs do show up on a few tracks, Converge bassist Nate Newton has fully stepped in on bass and vocals throughout. More notably, though, Cave In's long-established binary switch—melody/spacey vs. screamy/ragey—has been augmented by a new gear: chunky/grungy. Some space-core touches do show up on the first track "New Reality," and the trademark change-off between soundscapy metal and pummeling hardcore are clear early on as well, but by the time the vocal harmonies kick in on track three—a loose-limbed rocker called "Floating Skulls" that heavily flirts with boogie rock—it's clear that Cave In is comfortable leaning into grungy riffs and butt-rock groove far more than anyone might expect. The title track and "Waiting for Love," for instance, sound like straight up homage to '90s Seattle, and while Converge's Kurt Ballou is once again producing for the band (as he did for their fiery debut), he doesn't seem the least bit interested in focusing their fire, and instead is encouraging the band to explore and indulge. The back half of the album finds the group delving into some surprising areas with some unique touches, like the proggy plucked acoustic guitars that close out "Amaranthine," which sound like the opening notes to some sort of elf-metal epic. By the time the album closes out with the 12-minute "Wavering Angel," the band has found a way to fuse all of the gritty grunge and growly spaciness of the previous thirteen tracks into something that—as one might expect—could only come from Cave In.