After bassist Caleb Scofield died in a car crash in 2018, to support his family a stunned Cave In issued reworked demos begun with him as their sixth studio album Final Transmission, perhaps expecting it to be just that. Now, with the long-time friend Nate Newton on board, they revisit the same spirit they began with Scofield in 1998 – stomping around that noisy landscape connecting grunge to metalcore.
Producing them is Nate’s Converge bandmate Kurt Balou, who worked on Cave In’s ’98 debut – a circle completed.
And so, across 70 minutes, the band return in their heavier style, with opening pair New Reality and Blood Spiller delivering brutal riffs of which Slayer might be proud, and, in Careless Offering, a no-nonsense boogie that Tony Iommi would probably admire.
Just as impactful are slower-paced numbers such as the menacing swing of the title-track and Nightmare Eyes, or the epic 12-minute closer Wavering Angel, which builds ferociously from deceptively gentle beginnings.
