Cave In explore the noisy landscape between grunge and metalcore on Heavy Pendulum

Massachusetts heavyweights Cave In return with first full album in 11 years, Heavy Pendulum

Heavy Pendulum cover art
(Image: © Relapse)

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After bassist Caleb Scofield died in a car crash in 2018, to support his family a stunned Cave In issued reworked demos begun with him as their sixth studio album Final Transmission, perhaps expecting it to be just that. Now, with the long-time friend Nate Newton on board, they revisit the same spirit they began with Scofield in 1998 – stomping around that noisy landscape connecting grunge to metalcore. 

Producing them is Nate’s Converge bandmate Kurt Balou, who worked on Cave In’s ’98 debut – a circle completed. 

And so, across 70 minutes, the band return in their heavier style, with opening pair New Reality and Blood Spiller delivering brutal riffs of which Slayer might be proud, and, in Careless Offering, a no-nonsense boogie that Tony Iommi would probably admire. 

Just as impactful are slower-paced numbers such as the menacing swing of the title-track and Nightmare Eyes, or the epic 12-minute closer Wavering Angel, which builds ferociously from deceptively gentle beginnings.

Neil Jeffries

Freelance contributor to Classic Rock and several of its offshoots since 2006. In the 1980s he began a 15-year spell working for Kerrang! intially as a cub reviewer and later as Geoff Barton’s deputy and then pouring precious metal into test tubes as editor of its Special Projects division. Has spent quality time with Robert Plant, Keith Richards, Ritchie Blackmore, Rory Gallagher and Gary Moore – and also spent time in a maximum security prison alongside Love/Hate. Loves Rush, Aerosmith and beer. Will work for food.