Review Summary: Cave In continues to rock and evolve with their ever changing musical tastes.
Cave In is a unique band. My first listening experience with them was when Antenna came out back in 2003. I had no idea they were a metal outfit back in the late 90s. I just thought it was a solid rock album and never really looked into the band again until earlier this year. I bought Until Your Heart Stops (which was a little jarring for my ears after hearing Antenna first) and was convinced it wasn't the same band and I had made a mistake in my purchase. After a little research I started to buy more of Cave In's albums and have been playing catch up ever since. It's rare to see a band go through so many genres in only a little over a decade's time (except for Thrice) and it is pretty impressive.
This is an interesting little EP. It consists of 4 tracks. Two are of the hardcore nature ("The Red Trail" especially and "Cayman Tongue") with heavy guitars and the screaming and whatnot and the other two ("Air Escapes" and "Retina Sees Rewind") have more of an upbeat punk feel to them. "The Red Trail" actually hits all of these notes. It's just a balls-out metal-punk infusion with all screaming vocals and doesn't let up until it is over. The distortion seems really gritty and dirtier compared to the likes of Perfect Pitch Black. All 4 tracks are great. It's hard to pick a favorite. I would say "Cayman Tongue", but I find the weird, spacey interlude kind of annoying and I think it breaks up the flow of the song. If it would have been an actual instrumental break instead of a bunch of random noises and effects, it would have stood above the rest of the pack.
Planets of Old is a strong EP for Cave In. I am always interested to see what they are going to try next.
