Cave In – Heavy Pendulum (Recommendation)

Heavy Pendulum marks the Relapse Records debut of Boston’s something between Rock and Metal masters Cave In. Heavy Pendulum also marks the debut of Nate Newton (also Converge, Old Man Gloom and Doomriders) as bassist and backing vocalist since long-time member Caleb Scofield tragically died in a car crash in 2018.

Nate Newton is such a good addition to the line-up. Besides being a great guitar-/ bass-player, he provides awesome vocals that perfectly accompany Stephen Brodsky’s singing. „Amaranthine“ is a song that showcases this in an excellent fashion. It somehow reminds me of the second Doomriders album Darkness Come Alive. “Blood Spiller” falls into the same category and is a definitive highlight on this album.

Although sounding very corny, one can only say, that this record rocks. The production sounds massive (thanks to producer of everything that is great and heavy, Kurt Ballou) and every song on this record has riffs for days. Everyone who isn’t nodding their head to songs like „New Reality“ or „Careless Offering“ doesn’t know what kinetic songs sound like.

One of Cave In‘s greatest strengths has always been the merging of genres. Besides the obvious Rock influences you can also hear Metal in a lot of styles. Taking “Nightmare Eyes“, a 7 minute Doom-Metal-Rock something.

Another standout tracks is of course the closer “Wavering Angel“, swinging between a somber eulogy, anthemic Rock song and epic guitar finale.

Heavy Pendulum is a good starting point to fall in love with Cave In (once more) and surely a milestone in their already long-lasting career. Give this pendulum a swing and get hit by it again and again.