Zozobra preview

Zozobra
Metro, Chicago
Thursday, March 22, 2007

With his main band, Cave In, on indefinite hiatus, Caleb Scofield seizes the moment to debut his new project, Zozobra.

Cave In are being very ambiguous about their status. Though, according to a post on their MySpace page, they haven’t broken up, Scofield, Stephen Brodsky, John Robert Conners, Ben Koller, and Adam McGrath sound uncertain when they will make music together again, and frankly, like they aren’t too concerned if they do.

This is bad news for Cave In fans. Especially following the band’s finest record to date, 2005’s Pitch Perfect Black (Hydra Head), a beautiful hybrid of atmospheric ambience and bone-rattling heaviness. The good news? Right now there are about 3,000 active Cave In side projects. Brodsky has Stephen Brodsky’s Octave Museum; Koller plays drums for Converge; Conners plays drums for Doomriders; and McGrath’s group, Clouds, debuted in February with The Legendary Demo. But fans jonesing for that Cave In fix will probably be most satisfied with Zozobra because of the similarities to Cave In. Scofield recruited drummer Santos Montano (who plays in Scofield’s other side project, Old Man Gloom) and together the duo recorded Harmonic Tremors, an album that explores the same space metal territory as Cave In, but does so in a more consistently heavy manner — definitely good enough to hold Cave In diehards’ attention until — if?– that band decides to record again.

Zozobra opens for Isis and Jesu.

— Trevor Fisher

Click here for streaming samples of Zozobra.

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly