Antenna (Limited Edition w/ Bonus DVD)
The fourth album from Cave In finds the Massachusetts-based hardcore innovators streaking away from their former orbit at fantastic speed. The band's earlier albums marked them out as a kind of psychedelicSlayer.Antennais a leap into a newly expansive, effects-laden sound that borrows from acts as alien to the hardcore spirit asRadioheadand Chicago post-rock championsTortoise. Frontman Stephen Brodsky's high, clear voice rides above the gigantic sheets of sound thrown out on the feedback-strewn "Stained Silver" and "Breath of Water." The album's epic centerpiece is "Seafrost"--a nine-minute piece with distorted, lurking bass lines, a prog-influence arrangement, and a final three-minute descent into a beautiful, celestial wash of sound. A truly remarkable progression, and a great album to boot--Antennais the work of a band that's constantly moving forward.--Louis Pattison