Formed in 1995 in Massachusetts by guitarist Steve Brodsky, Cave In became
the leading edge of "metalcore". The catchy tunes and complex song
structures on Beyond HypotermiaUntil Your Heart Stops (Hydra Head, 1999)
gave new meaning to the cliche` of noisy, frenzied and chaotic
fusion of heavy-metal and hardcore (Converge, Coalesce, Botch).
These albums promoted Cave In to the vanguard of the post-hardcore army.
However,
the EP Creative Eclipses (1999) introduced a new band, willing to
experiment with all aspects of a song format but in a more classical manner.
Jupiter (Hydra Head, 2000) sounded like a new version of
Rush's progressive metal (Big Rift, In The Stream Of Commerce).
An even more polished and bombastic sound turned Tides of Tomorrow (RCA, 2002)
and Antenna (RCA, 2003)
into close relatives of Radiohead's digital power-pop.
Perfect Pitch Black (Hydra Head, 2005) is still a compromise between
their ambitious Jupiter and mainstream power-pop.
While the band tries to return to its metal roots,
what is still missing (even from the seven-minute Paranormal and the
grunge-y Trepanning) is the energy that had derailed their first two
albums.
Boston's
Old Man Gloom, featuring
Aaron Turner of Isis and Caleb Scofield of Cave In, debuted with
the mini-albums
Meditations In B (2000),
Seminar II - The Holy Rites Of Primitivism Regressionism (2001) and
Seminar III - Zozobra (2001).
Their first major statement was Christmas (Tortuga, 2004), notably
16-minute three-movement droning folk fantasy Christmas Eve.
Steven Brodsky's
Octave Museum (Hydra Head, 2007) was an album of orchestral pop.
Steven Brodsky followed it up with Pet Genius (2007), a hodgepodge
of rock styles.
Cave In's guitarist Adam McGrath launched his solo project
the Clouds with
the freaked-out stylistic maelstroms of
Legendary Demo (2007)
and
We Are Above You (Hydra Head, 2008).
Cave In's
Planets Of Old (Hydra Head, 2009) was both one of their most accessible
works,
with relatively catchy songs such as
Cayman Tongue,
Retina Sees Rewind and
Air Escapes, and a return to the heavy sound of their early recordings.
Cave In's EP Anomalies Vol. 1 (Hydra Head) collects unreleased tracks and rarities, mostly covers.
Continuing in their somewhat schizophrenic vein,
White Silence (Hydra Head, 2011) invested both in melodic
melodramas (the eight-minute Sing My Loves,
Summit Fever) and in furious rave-ups
(Vicious Circles, Serpents, Centered), excelling in
neither but coining a curious hybrid.
Caleb Scofield died in 2018 at the age of 39.
