Labels: Relapse
Review by: Alex Deller
I thought Inter Arma’s Sky Burial LP was good, but this one knocks ten bells out of it. Ostensibly an EP, ‘The Cavern’ is, in fact, one single 45-minute track. Like its predecessor it spans genres and styles, but while there you could detect the joins and where things had been folded over this one is as neat and seamless as you could hope for. After some ambient pootling the main course is served: a seismic riff that recalls the grandiose pomp and majesty of those setpiece moments to be found in ‘Creeping Death’ or ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’. This is the spine of the thing and its testament to its strength that it can withstand being pummelled for endless minutes without it breaking or becoming dull; a huge, weather-blasted totem erected to honour the sheer glory and splendour of THE RIFF. Around it circle other elements “” string-laden moments of Neurosis-riddled gloom; haunting female vocals and alt-country inclinations; crenelated thrash riffing “” all so deftly interwoven that the changes in pitch, flow and dynamic seem as natural as the rise and fall of the tides. Pretty magnificent, really, and as total and immersive a metal record as you could possibly hope to find.