Needtobreathe's 'Caves' reveals an empathetic heart powering rock's modern revival

Rock's mainstream revival isn't just, at present, limited to country music. Listen to Needtobreathe's ninth studio album, "Caves" and the sound that emerges finds the band nearly two decades into their mainstream run and more confidently willing to engage with the soaring vocals, booming grooves and power chord-driven tracks familiar to the classic rock stylings that lured the quintet to pick up instruments in their youth.

Though renowned on Alternative and Christian radio, Needtobreathe's success has sustained rock's album-driven popularity for the past two decades. Over the past decade, five consecutive releases have topped Billboard's Rock sales chart.

Because it more honestly lives in the space between faith, heart and love than their prior material, "Caves" feels like a more assured chart-topper than their past material.

"Pigeonholing this band is hard -- although I'll say, like prodigal sons, we've finally returned home on this recording," Needtobreathe's lead singer Bear Rineheart tells The Tennessean during a Music Row interview with the band.

The band's 20-year journey has involved Bear's younger brother, Bo, parting ways with the band in 2020 after two years of counseling to aid with surviving the trauma of childhood sexual abuse.

The type of love required to endure such difficulties requires what Rinehart describes as "unnatural" empathy. Existing in that space for the better part of a half-decade, plus writing the album in an extended "summer camp"-style getaway in a mountain cabin in Utah, yielded tracks like "By and By," "Dreams," "Fall Away" and "Hideaway."

"Love is more about hearing someone than acting alongside them and making a whole scene," Rinehart adds. The level of passion in his voice notably rises when discussing the importance of the band accepting the maturity required to put the "monumental" universality of timeless, family-unifying messages above achieving hit singles.

In "Fall On Me," the feeling of the stress of making mistakes and accepting failure as a parent or family member is apparent.

"Accepting that we, as people, can [be imperfect] is difficult but necessary."

Succeeding at the art of imperfect perfection would be the best way to describe the band's work with album collaborations like Judah and The Lion, Carly Pearce and Old Dominion.

"Everyone's so chill and understated about how great their work turned out on here," says Rinehart.

"Old Dominion's a band, just like we are. So, they listened to the demo we sent them for 'Wasting Time' and they responded 30 seconds later with a 'yes.' Then, with Carly or Foy Vance (who appears on "Temporary Tears"), we're at a place where we could've chosen any vocalist -- but they've got the invitingly heavy and soulful qualities we wanted. [Carly] got ["Fall On Me"] in one take or so, I believe."

The band's guitarist, Tyler Burkum, adds that insecurities "getting in the way" of "learning new colors with which to [metaphorically] paint sounds" is no longer an issue.

"We had unprecedented confidence as a band with this album because we knew we had the potential to make something great."

Also, the desire to maintain success commensurate to headlining live stages like Nashville's Bridgestone Arena (as they did for the first time in 2021) is essential to the quintet.

Recording songs encapsulating what Rinehart describes as "feverish urgency" is important. Moreso than achieving success as a group moved by making great lyrical material, the band's next two decades are likely to be as -- or more -- defined by their in-studio skills as a veteran unit of world-class players.

Drummer Randall Harris jokes that there are no quantized drum sounds from Apple's digital audio workstation Logic Pro on their recording.

"Cheap is not the new expensive here," Rinehart laughs.

Electronic music's computerized drums and sample-driven productions surged on Billboard's charts as rock's mainstream era waned in the late 2000s. It's in musicians in cities like Nashville tightening their in-studio camaraderie to create songs that feature the magic that arises from long-time colleagues diving into long-honed grooves.

"These are Aerosmith, Black Crowes, Journey, Oasis and Pearl Jam-style arena rock records under our most robust lyrical material in a decade," says Rinehart, recalling the band's 2016 album "Hard Love"'s crossover popularity.

For bassist Seth Bolt, the album's best material represents a "communal effort" that reflects "the best of our shared life experiences."

Rinehart smiles at Bolt's statement.

"For 'Caves,' I'm glad that we remembered that we're a band from a small town in South Carolina. So, as much as we've learned along the way, we're still capable of making exciting new music that feels like we're veterans who have played thousands of shows but also outsiders trying to fit in and make our way."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Needtobreathe: 'Caves' explores empathy from South Carolina band