Antenna

Before we bite the beef folks, lets get one thing straight: Cave In are not a nu metal band. They are, in fact, a new metal band – some much fabled genre that hasn’t seen the light of day since Linkin Park bastardised it way back when in 2000.

Early speed metal incarnations, arguably the most technically demanding of all walks of rock, have done good things for this proggier-than-thou Boston quartet. Their superior musicianship and exactitude is remarkably evident on their second full length release, Antenna, putting them up there with the masters of prog metal such as A Perfect Circle, Incubus (circa Make Yourself) and Deftones (not to mention a smidgen of Filter-esque industria going on in the guitar department).

Drums fills are gloriously complex (see album highlight ‘Stained Silver’), guitars float on epic flanges with the lead winding in and out of the melody as in ‘Joy Opposites’ while the seething vocals give in to an unmistakable Maynard James Keenan meets Richard Patrick hybrid.

This is what happens when rock gets intelligent. And there’s not a DJ in sight.