Review Summary: Return of the Kings...
Cave In are your favourite band's favourite band. And if they aren't, your favourite band sucks. If Botch was the greatest metalcore band of all time, their only competition in this category would have to be Cave In's first two albums, Beyond Hypothermia and Until Your Heart Stops, both released in the late 90s. These are the records that essentially invented the genre itself, and everything that's come since by countless ***ty cookie-cutter-core bands has just been a pale imitation of what Cave In achieved on those records. They were brutal, complex, and most importantly, interesting. Not wanting to limit themselves to a single sound, the '99 Creative Eclipses saw the band introducing melody into their pallet, a sound that was expanded on on the '00 LP Jupiter. Like Until Your Heart Stops, this album also became an instant classic, although the sound was far removed from their debut album. Despite vocalist/guitarist Stephen Brodsky singing throughout the entire disc, and a very minimal emphasis on production, the album was still as heavy as hell and showed a mastery of songwriting that the band hadn't shown before.
This is where all the familiar tropes start falling into place: major label hears album, major label signs band, major label ***s with the sound that got band so famous in the first place. Cave In released Antenna on RCA in '03, and much to everyone's dismay (including the band themselves), the band's signature heaviness all but disappeared to make way for almost alt-rockish anthems. Is Antenna a bad album? Not in the least; you'd be hard-pressed to find a better mainstream rock album from that year. But it just wasn't Cave In. Extremely dissatisfied with themselves and the label, Cave In cut ties with RCA, and tried to redeem themselves with the lackluster Perfect Pitch Black in '05, a 'return to form' that unfortunately just wasn't very good. It seems the damage had been done, and the band went on official hiatus in 2006.
It looked like that was it for Cave In. The members of the band went on to do their own things, which mostly sucked (except for bassist Scofield's Zozobra...they ***ing kicked ass). The all-too familiar fall from grace was over. But then, seemingly out of nowhere, a new, four song EP appeared from the group in '09, called Planets of Old. And it was literally every fanboy's dream come true: sounding like a mix of Until Your Heart Stops and Jupiter, the songs were fast, mean, and heavy as ***. Cave In were BACK. And according to them, the release was so short just because they wanted to get the songs out there as quickly as possible so they could begin work on their comeback LP. Fine by me! And here it is, White Silence, the comeback record from one of the most important bands of the last 15 years. So does it live up to its own hype?
Oh hell yes it does. This album is an absolute behemoth, threatening to plow down anyone or anything that stands in its way. There are songs on here that are heavier than anything they've ever done. Seriously, ever. Noise is a key factor on this album; the title White Silence is suiting, as the whole album sounds like it was recorded under a foot of snow. Swirls of feedback and other noises litter the album, slightly obscuring the sound but never taking away from it. The album begins with the one-two punch of White Silence and Serpents, two noise-core tracks that act as a disclaimer to everyone that Antenna-era Cave In is long, long, long gone. The opening squalls of feedback on third track Sing My Loves serves somehow as a quick breather for the listener and the band, because once this track picks up, it doesn't let up. Cave In love their epics, but Sing My Loves is the ***ing One Ring of Cave In epics, surpassing them all. I could go on and on about this song, but this review is already getting pretty long as it is, and I have *** to do today. Suffice it to say its my favourite track of 2011, and should be yours too. After the denouement of that insane song, Cave In kick your face back in with possibly the heaviest song on the album, Vicious Circles.
And its not over yet. Vicious Circles leads into Centered, a kickass noise-rock track that actually has a pretty catchy hook hidden beneath all the distortion. The energy displayed on this song is unmatched by any other band out there right now. Its truly inspiring. Next track Summit Fever continues in the noise-rock vein of the previous track, toning down the tempo for the first half or so. It continues on at a pretty steady pace until about 2:15 or so, where everything goes silent fora moment, and then....BOOM. The track ***ing erupts into an all out guitargasm. If you have any appreciation for the instrument whatsoever, the last half of this song is going to make you *** every pair of pants you have ever worn. Like, I'm talking serious retroactive pants-***ting on this one. The last three songs show the band taking a diffenrent approach from the rest of the album, bringing to mind their Tides of Tomorrow and Creative Eclipses EPs. Heartbreaks, Earthquakes sounds like what would happen if the Beatles became a sludge metal band, Iron Decibels is a hilariously tongue in cheek jangly rock song, and closer Reanimation sounds like a Pink Floyd b-side. These tracks serve as a necessary break from the chaos of the first 2/3 of the album, and prove that Cave In can be heavy as *** while still being extremely creative.
So this is it, the dream come true. Everyone has that band that they used to love, then they sold out and started sucking and now you hate them. Imagine if that band came out with an album that harkened back to their early, glorious days, except this album was just as good, if not better. This is what White Silence is. A true return to glory by one of the best bands of all time.
