Reviews

Cave-In’s triumphant return to form begins with an ominous buzzing.  What monster will arise from this dark sonic texture?  A fusion, as hinted by the title of the record, of Stephen Brodsky’s musician’s music and the crowd’s hardcore demands, is what pounds forth. The title track opens with Jupiter/Tides Of Tomorrow style melodic slickness, but are soon punctuated by bellows. Cave-In is now a two headed animal, an Orthros snarling with one head while the other sways serene.
 
As it was constructed from cast off rejected major label demos, Perfect Pitch Black is not a perfect album, but it is one of the more accomplished and intriguing hardcore albums of the year.  Within almost every song operate the dichotomy of the melody versus the agony, the struggle between wanting to play blissful pop and the demands of a unreceptive community who would rather hear Stoic repeated ad nasum.  Some songs, such as the driving, metal influenced and melody infused Trepanning, succeed wildly. The metallic riffing underneath Brodsky’s melodic chorus reverbs with a refreshing honesty some of the other tracks lack. Plus, when the everything drops out except for the crunching bass line in the middle of the song, it is a little shot of glory.  At other times on the album, the bipolar nature of the music seems forced.  During the primal yet ethereal opening of Paranormal, with Stephen’s voice lilting above a solid groove, it seems as if Cave-In is truly in their element. All of a sudden, the requisite hardcore vox come crashing in, throwing the meditative structure off and sounding completely forced, especially when the song returns to the Pelican/Isis-esque soundscape after the slight metal interjection. The song continues this way for a good seven minutes, and at times is simply revelatory.
 
The last two minutes of Paranormal lead directly into the most hypnotic tune on the album, the slow acoustic and effects based Down The Drain.  Trying to get the hook out of your head will be an exercise in futility. “Time goes down the drain...”  An obtuse lament for the lost years on a major? Maybe.
 
This album proves that Cave-In touring with Converge was a bad idea, and the greatest thing that could have happened to them during that time.  On the one hand, they got the untrue idea that bands have to be heavy to be amazing, an idea which doesn’t really work for where Cave-In is headed.  But on the other hand, it reminded them that they were once a metal force to be reckoned with and that the past should not be so easily thrown aside. And so we got Perfect Pitch Black, with great progressive tunes, great metal tunes, great hybrids, some crazy lyrics (“I thought it was a birthmark, it looked kinda nice, I didn’t know it was your tracking device”) and a few clunking moments.  Cave-In is making omlettes for the entire community, and sure a few eggs are broken, but a lot of people are going to be bringing empty plates back up for seconds.