Cave In confirmed the new album Final Transmission featuring Caleb Scofield’s last recordings will be released on June 7 via Hydra Head. The album is the first release in eight years since their 2011’s album White Silence. Final Transmission also marks the first release since the sudden passing of bassist Caleb Scofield in a fatal car accident.
The album was believed as Scofield’s final contribution to the American band’s project, which he plays bass on six songs and guitar on two. Extracted from Caleb’s text message about the new idea of the upcoming album, his voice memo is the nostalgia opening track of Final Transmission. The lyrics in “All Illusion” and the last track “Led To The Wolves” in the whole album are also driven by the loss of Caleb. Listen to (and share) “All Illusion” now.
The making process of Final Transmission is not easy for band members. “Getting these mixes back was really hard,” Guitarist/vocalist Steve Brodsky explains. “I don’t think I’ve cried so much putting together any record. I’ve definitely felt like bursting into tears while I was working on things, but this was actual water being shed. I don’t try to look too deeply into how these things work, but these recordings are some of our last moments spending time with him.”
“The song ‘Shake My Blood’ was my first opportunity to express what I was feeling about the whole situation,” Steve adds. “It’s a mix of extreme grief, frustration and anger. I was trying to do something to gain the clearest answer about whatever the next move might be. We worked on the lyrics together, and all three of us sing on that song—Adam’s doing the high harmonies and JR is doing the low harmonies.”
“Hearing his voice fucks you up a little bit,” guitarist Adam McGrath expresses. “We were surprised to get it from him, actually, but we thought it was great. And that was it. In a weird way, it’s the end of the story as far as our relationship together.”
“He had weird rhythms that none of us would ever come up with or think to try, which turned the material into a different thing. He had a huge hand in these songs.” Drummer J.R. Conners emphasizes the importance of Caleb.
“Caleb had a really crystallized view of how to navigate the whole thing,” Steve believes, “I think he was encouraging us to embrace what we’ve always been good at and what sets us apart from our contemporaries.”
The bandmates will donate half of the earnings from Final Transmission to Scofield’s family. Pre-order of the album in the UK, Europe, Germany and the US are available now.
Final Transmission, Full Tracklisting:
1. Final Transmission
2. All Illusion
3. Shake My Blood
4. Night Crawler
5. Lunar Day
6. Winter Window
7. Lanterna
8. Strange Reflection
9. Led To The Wolves
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