There are several bands jostling for the heavy, arty interstices between the monoliths of Neurosis and Radiohead, and though healthy hiatuses have left Cave In making less entries than say, Muse, they bring the best together like no other.

Cave In started off as one of the proto-metalcore ensembles of the late 1990s, but after a few germinal genre recordings (the undisputed classics Beyond Hypothermia and Until Your Heart Stops), they switched their vibe from introspection to outer space. A major change as such is not easy: Think Kill Holiday or Corrosion of Conformity, but on Jupiter (2000) and Antenna (2003), their new trajectory was charted and executed, as well as soon imitated, but never duplicated.

White Silence takes the best of Cave In’s collective history and puts it steadily into orbit (This is their KIss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me or Hail to the Thief). From the jolting launch (the abrasive title track) through alien atmospheres (the frenetic “Serpents,” the rumbling “Vicious Circles,” and the downright beautiful epic “Sing My Loves”) to splashdown (the dreamy “Reanimation”), White Silence is a 35-minute journey to worlds heretofore unknown but soon made comfortably home.

—Roy Christopher, 07 June 2011