Cave In - Perfect Pitch Black

  by Adrian Huggins

published: 5 / 10 / 2005

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Review

'Perfect Pitch Black' is Boston band Cave In’s fourth album. Their last album, 'Antenna', was a stunning effort, but met with a lot of criticism from some of their older fans. They felt that they had let them down by going from being a hardcore band to a much more melody driven act, who were more likely to come under the “prog-rock” rather than the punk banner. 'Perfect Pitch Black' seems to be an album where Cave In have just done exactly what they wanted and in the process have brought together superbly both their early style and more recent style. It sounds like the work of a band that have played hardcore but have wanted to expand and experiment, and it would be a great loss if they had not had the creative freedom to do so because the results are excellent. In all honesty, the first Cave In album I heard was 'Antenna', and I love it, but I didn’t know or discover their more hardcore sound until a while after. This album, as you will read in every bit of press you are likely to read about it, will please both new and old fans alike, simply because both these sounds can be heard side by side throughout the album, with singers Stephen Brodsky and Caleb Schofield bouncing melodic and hardcore vocals off each other throughout. It is, however, a great insult perhaps to use the word "simply". That may give the impression they just cut the two styles together in such a way as to please everyone. This really isn’t the case. You never know what is coming next. The opening title track is just distortion with a few strange noises, leaving you unsure what’s coming, then 'The World Is In Your Way' kicks in, sounding like it could have been hand picked from 'Antenna'. And then the chorus kicks in. You’re met not with a melodic tuneful sing-a-long chorus, but a guttural scream. “Ah” you begin to think, “This must be the hardcore bits!” and they are spot on. Brutal, heavy, but not over the top or out of place with the rest of song. What a great way to start any album ! The real treat of the album comes quickly with 'Trepanning'. This song takes the regular singing verses then screaming choruses and turns them upside down. It is helped along nicely with a bass heavy riff that stays in your head for hours. The best comparison would be to imagine Queens of the Stone Age if it were Nick Oliverri who had kicked Josh Homme out of the band. Instead of getting rid of him, he just kept him in a cage and beat him nightly, only letting him out to play the heaviest tunes or else he wouldn’t feed him. 'Trepanning' incidentally, for those who don’t know, as it’s explained on the album sleeve, refers to treatment where a drill is used to relieve pressure build-ups in the skull. And here's me thinking it was a type of comedian ? 'Paranormal' is another fantastic mix of melody and just when your settling into the groove another screaming chorus comes out of nowhere, yet it seems the most natural thing. 'Down The Drain' is a real gem. It’s going to sound strange, but when I first heard this song two bands came to mind-the Deftones and the Lightning Seeds. Yes, those Brit-poppers from Merseyside who sing that football song. It has a similar dreamy feel to Ian Broudie's vocals, yet a heavy guitar riff softly plays in the background. The Deftones comparison comes from songs such as 'White Pony' which were heavy but slow and soothing at the same time. Just as you're dazing off the bassline for 'Droned' kicks in and wakes you back up. This is more of a straight up rock song, with not as many surprises. It is much more “space rocky” than a lot of the other songs, and does not have the screaming vocals you're expecting to come in at any moment, as they opt on this occasion for a more straight forward approach. 'Ataraxia' follows with a similar prog-rock feel and sounds a little like Muse. 'Tension In The Ranks' is a slower song that fits perfectly with the previous two songs and has both mellow vocals and long guitar solos. The album closes in style with 'Screaming In Your Sleep'. It relies on the mellow rather than the aggressive vocals, but does not compromise on the opportunity to rock out along the way. It has a choppy solo from Adam McGrath on guitar and rolling drums from John-Robert Conners. It finishes abruptly with a bang on the drum, leaving you hoping for much more. This really is a superb album. Hopefully Cave In will win yet more fans with this offering. It is brilliantly surprising at times, pulling off various twists throughout. The only thing left to say is what are you doing sitting here still reading this? Go and buy this album ! NOW!

Track Listing:-

1 Perfect Pitch Black
2 The World Is In Your Way
3 Off To Ruin
4 Trepanning
5 Paranormal
6 Down The Drain
7 Droned
8 Ataraxia
9 Tension In The Ranks
10 Screaming In Your Sleep