ALBUM REVIEW: Final Transmission – Cave In

On March 28th last year, Caleb Scofield died. He was a husband, a father of two, a carpenter, and a venerated musician based on his work with extreme metal supergroup OLD MAN GLOOM, post-sludge unit ZOZOBRA, and perhaps most famously with Massachusetts metalcore royalty CAVE IN. His loss was felt tremendously throughout the musical community, especially keenly by his band mates, and none would have questioned or begrudged any of the projects he was involved with quietly and respectfully ceasing to be.

His brothers in CAVE IN, Stephen Brodsky, John-Robert Conners and Adam McGrath decided that there was only one fitting way to honour Scofield’s legacy; that they would sculpt the raw materials of song ideas and practice space demos that featured his contributions into what could well be their last album; the aptly titled Final Transmission.

Eight years on from 2011’s critically lauded White Silence, what is perhaps most striking about the eight songs that comprise the record is the absence of dilution – the interim saw the four members pursue various side projects, and it would be understandable for a degree of cross-pollination to have occurred. Not so; these songs are undeniably CAVE IN’s work, uniting themes and elements from across their two-decade plus career. Opening with the title track, a bittersweet and melancholia tinged acoustic guitar melody that wistfully lilts under a bare-bones, wordlessly sung melody, it’s a beautiful distillation of the spirit of the record throughout.

All Illusion shimmers with expansive guitars, Brodsky’s clear, direct vocal warble arching over shuffling, snare heavy drums. Driving bass swings, keeping up a restless pace amid the twinkling guitars, the burly rhythms uniting with melodic layers, soaring in a slow, united descent. Shake My Blood is all bright melody, a rolling tempo winding under chiming guitars before picking up into a bouncing rhythm. They make the most of the aural space, expanding and contracting over Brodsky’s heart-on-sleeve lyricism. Night Crawler sees the quartet bite down into a driving, snarling drive, jagged riffing and amp squeals pitted against a savage bass hook and vaulting guitar overlay. It’s all breakneck pace, lurching guitars built up with dense, claustrophobic layering.

Lunar Day is a wash of bright, lush noise and distant, obscured vocals, a cinematic loop of noise and effects. Winter Window smacks the chops with an unexpected curveball; outrageously retro dual guitar needling, like some kind of 80’s Saturday morning cartoon soundtrack, before grounded by a hefty bass slide, settling into a gravitational pull of fidgeting rhythms, shredding tremolo and united chords. Lanterna bristles with jagged edges and low, dirty bass rumble, the dour heaviness broken up by smatterings of guitar echo, before putting head down and charging into a turn of racing speed. Abruptly dropping into single guitar, feedback builds to oppressive levels before psyching out into phasing guitar shimmer.

Strange Reflection bursts with thick chords, splashy cymbals ushering in a snaking bass drive, unhurried and glass-smooth, peppered with stabbing guitars that build into a wailing vocal/guitar call and response. Alternating between huge chords backed by thumping toms and sleazy guitars, Brodsky croons “strange reflection, old friend” as the track morphs into a squall of otherworldly noise. Closer Led To The Wolves is fittingly less polished than the other tracks here, a savage, tumbling sprint. Breathlessly messy, powered by tribal drumming and brutalising, it’s a frenzied and heaving exercise in chaotic layering, an intimidating and towering gravity well that ends without ceremony.

Perhaps the biggest absence to be found on Final Transmission (and one for which there was absolutely nothing that could be done) is the literal absence of Scofield’s voice; his caustic, glass-throated roar was a near physical presence, tipping the dynamically heavy sections of their work ever downward, leaving the shifts on this record seeming a tad less extreme. This said, for a record borne of such tragedy, created under adversity, it is a triumph, a fitting legacy for the band as a whole and as individual musicians.

They say that every radio transmission ever made by man echoes into space, away from the earth, and thus a measure of immortality can be found. In this way, Caleb Scofield lives on now, and forever.

Rating: 9/10

Final Transmission is set for release June 7th via Hydra Head Industries. 

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