Sacrifice Poles

The alter-ego of hardcore, noise, metal, prog terrorists turned righteous rock progenitors Cave In, it is safe to say that without the Sacrifice Poles we wouldn't have Cave In's brilliant magnum rock opus, Jupiter. Conceived during the writing of Jupiter, in the midst of a traumatic episode of writer's block, the Sacrifice Poles were designed as a way for Cave In to jam and rekindle their creativity, and while few of the ideas on this album were utilised on Jupiter, the commonalties are evident. Just as spacy and psychedelic as Jupiter, with an obvious improvised, jam feeling to the proceedings, the Sacrifice Poles are, however, more of a collection of unfinished thoughts and half-formed ideas, which is intriguing as a reference point for Jupiter, but relatively uneven as its own listening experience. With nary a vocal line, save one sample, and with many of the "songs" meandering into repetitive "jam" territory, repeat listens may not be necessary, unless as a soundtrack to other activities. However, taken as a pure psychedelic, atmospheric excursion, Sacrifice Poles can be as much as an enjoyable journey as it can also be a maddeningly frustrating affair, never fully succumbing to either its ambient bent or rock posturing. While Cave In has stated that the Sacrifice Poles will continue and expand beyond a dumping ground for unused album ideas, this debut would have been better served with more flushed out ideas and evolved tangents.