3 out of 5

Label: Hydra Head

Producer: Cave In and Kurt Ballou (compilation production), Brian McTernan (original production)

So I’m told by wiki that this isn’t Brodsky doing the shouting on most of these tracks, but early Cave In guy Jay Frechette, which adds to the oddity of ‘Beyond Hypothermia,’ because he sounds an awful lot like Steve to me, although that article also says ‘Most of the songs were re-recorded with different members for Beyond Hypothermia,’ so who the duff knows.  The other strange thing?  That this is a compilation album, which I still have trouble believing, seeing as how seamlessly most of this fits together.  And though not as defined as ‘Until Your Heart Stops,’ it’s actually an easier listen from start to finish, stripped of some of the ‘Heart’s more experimental excess and flourishes, equaling quicker riffs and shorter song runtime.  However, it also means it doesn’t get the focus of an album, and that’s where it makes sense, since despite some awesome songage, nothing here really stands out as the track to play for all your friends, slotting more closely to the punk/hardcore Converge influence that started the band.  It’s also a pretty mushy production quality, which again I guess shouldn’t be surprising, culled from earlier singles/splits as the songs are (and accepting whatever cleaning up Kurt Ballou and the band must’ve done for re-release through HH), but it’s something else that ‘Hypothermia’ shares with Converge that has always prevented me from really being able to sink into their music.  So while some of the guitar ballistics and bass/drum interplay do rank, at moments, with some of Cave In’s most inventive stuff, it gets a sort of blase wash that merges it with the next track.  And I appreciate the completionism of including last track ‘Crambone,’ and before it ‘Ritual Famine,’ both unreleased at this point, but at-that-time lead singer Dave Scrod just wasn’t a great match for the group’s style and it always seems like a bit of a miss before some interesting noise (Horror movie?  Theme park?) and then a demo of ‘Until Your Heart Stops,’ which is pretty sweet.

Whoever was writing the lyrics at this point – Frechette, Brodsky – just sorta skirted the hardcore themes of anger and anger, but it’s delivered in a believably momentous blending of snarls and singing that works.

By no means a waste of money, ‘Hypothermia’ has some awesome moments that make you wonder why you don’t listen to the album as much as other Cave In stuff.  You’ll wonder it every time you remember to put it on, though, browsing your catalogue, suggesting that therein lies your answer.