Matt Cameron has long been the kind of drummer that most drummers wish they were. Seemingly able to play anything - to bounce from project-to-project with nary a blurred line. In short, Matt Cameron knows his shit.
It would be fair to say that despite being the drummer for Pearl Jam since 1998, Cameron will forever be inexorably linked to Soundgarden. A band synonymous with both a sound and a city. So now that Soundgarden has become tragically a thing of the past, what’s a drummer to do but release a solo album?
It would easy (and lazy) to assume that Cavedweller is any kind of response to the circumstances of earlier this year, but this album has been in the works for years. Maybe even decades, with ideas gone unused in Wellwater Conspiracy and Hater.
And ideas seem to be what Cameron is full of. And like any great architect he has the skills to bring these ideas to fruition. Enlisting what was essentially David Bowie’s final backing band, Cameron sticks mainly to vocal and guitar duties and it’s on tracks like “Blind” and “Through the Ceiling” that you can hear Camerons true voice, giving promise to what’s ahead in the years to come.
Tracks like “All At Once” and “Unnecessary” shine with a glossy 70’s rock sheen that could just as easily sound at home on a Taylor Hawkins solo album. It’s the mixture of depth and levity throughout that really gives the album some weight, stamina and girth.
