23052011

Cave In - White Silence (2011)

(post-hardcore / noise rock / sludge metal)

I hadn't listened to Cave In for a long time and I was absolutely flabbergasted when I got to know that they're releasing new material this year. After all, Perfect Pitch Black came out in 2005, which is, for goodness sake, six years ago. I was waiting for something along the lines of the last three albums with outstanding clean singing, atmospheric post-hardcore all-around and the feeling that Brodsky's sudden change in his vocal style created. Instead, I get an intense explosion of rough sounds bursting out of my speakers with a force that was nearly brutal enough to break them. I don't know how Cave In does it, but they are able to shift their musical style from port to starboard without any complexities along the deck.

During the introductory title track I had two mdoerately large china plates as my eyes and a fairly wide gap between my upper and lower lips. The aggrevated screams and a simple chord repetition in the background create a nearly haunting atmosphere and the expectations for another Perfect Pitch Black just went down the drain with a strong flush. The expression of amazement continued throughout Serpents, a raw, aggressive Cave In track from years ago (it feels to be, at least) with head-bashing drums and no added tricks. Not until Sing My Loves was I fully able to listen to the actual music and there could not have been a better track to realize that this actually is Cave In. The above average length track brings forth everything Cave In can do. The feeling shifts from a massive stampede of drums and distorted guitar sounds to the Brodsky's vocal-led post-hardcore atmosphere, which makes the second half of the song float through your ears with the utmost elegance the band can provide.

It wouldn't be just to call White Silence the most progressive piece Cave In has create to date but this album simply needs some credit for the sheer variety of it. The difference between Centered and its follow-up track, Summit Fever, is mind-blowing and Heartbreaks, Earthquakes introduces another surprising element with its mechanized calmness and distorted emotion. The versatile collection of tracks doesn't seize even in the last tracks of this fairly short album. Iron Decibels goes along with a far-away southern rock melody and Reanimation ends the album with the closest thing a hardcore band can get to a lullaby.

So far, White Silence has been the most positive surprise of 2011 and it presented an even more fortified version of an already strong and diverse post-hardcore quartet.