Cave In
“Tides of Tomorrow”
(Hydrahead Records)
Stunning music to accompany a stunning package. CD art rarely gets a mention from me, but the cover art to “Tides of Tomorrow” is striking in itself. Cave In does well to create music that lives up to the art. Indie rock that is highly creative and very expressive in range. The dry, almost electronically dubbed drum that sets the background pace in the opening track, “Come Into Your Own” displays that subtle work of adding subversive elements to a song that give an infinite amount of character to the piece. Half of the six songs here push well past the 5-minute mark as Cave In present very thought-out and evolving ideas within each song. No verse/chorus/verse/chorus structures here. Songs have a high degree of individual identities, without sounding like a bunch of different bands recorded these.
The smooth hush of Stephen Brodsky provides much of the unifying element between numbers and paints a lyrically exposing landscape. “The reality check is in the mail.” states Brodsky in “Dark Driving”. The falling, collapsing direction the percussions embrace is defined by drummer John-Robert Conners ability to craft drum lines that roll and stumble most poetically. It keeps a forward momentum to the songs and gives them a restraining energy. The use of acoustic guitars against the distortion in the disks closer “Everest” is a stunning and dramatic use of textures, which gives the song a certain sense of… importance, validity (reassurance?). Cave In are the intelligent antithesis of all that is being labeled ’emo’ just because it presents itself in rocking and emotional, but non-metal terms. Bands like this just don’t come around enough.
