Review of Cavity - Supercollider (Reissue)

When you thought about being a reviewer, and I know you did, what sorts of things did you figure you would say about what you heard? My brother and I, after we got over the teen sibling rivalry years and before I moved out, I used to occasionally sit in my room with my stereo blasting something I had recorded off of the local independent community radio station's late night Metal Fest. We would be chewing tobacco and drinking a beer, maybe, just shooting the shit, and the conversations and jokes would drift to whatever song or album was playing. We would compare it to other albums we heard - you know, "this band sounds like if Iron Maiden's guitar duo had decided to join Motorhead" or whatever. I guess I always figured that was how I would review if I got the chance. Lots of comparisons because that was how I thought about things.

Seems like a sound idea until you realize that not everyone has heard what you have, so saying a band sounds like Max Webster and Black Oak Arkansas' love child really doesn't help anyone. Not only that, but it gives the impression that the band you are listening to is simply derivative of some other band. And they are, they all are. Every band sounds like some artist that came before them. Total innovation would be a different form of music, not just another take on an existing form. And frankly I don't really care all that much about pure innovation. Just like any art, music is a progression and expansion, not an arms race. There will be no super weapon of music that will render all other forms and styles moot. They will build on the foundations and structures others laid down before them.

Supercollider is a reissue from Cavity, and to give you the real idea of what I think of this record, I have to compare it. It just begs to be compared. If Allen and Paul from Ministry decided to put together a Melvins tribute band, it would sound like this record. Hopefully you all have heard Ministry and Melvins. If not, think simple, pummeling riffs with exquisite, backbeat laden drumwork and vocals that sound as though they were being shouted from a rooftop in a rainstorm. It's not precisely stoner or sludge, but that is the closest living relative. But this music drives much harder, recorded wide open and vast to give it a wildness most sludge bands lack.

The hero of this record is the drummer. Not only does his kit sound live as fuck, he has the uncanny ability to add just exactly the right snare shot in the place it needs it most but that most people wouldn't even think of. It's the E=mc2 effect of drumming, so simple yet so profound and far reaching, it makes each song an exciting experience instead of a simple chunkfunk bong hit. The band as a whole plays with fire, so the drummist isn't wasting his efforts.

If there is an area that drags this CD down it;s that, as cool as the trick may be this is a one-trick-pony band. And after a while you get that feeling that maybe they should have tried something else, just to mix it up a little. There are a couple of bonus tracks tacked onto the end, but they are not very compelling.

Bottom Line: This is a pretty good CD for sludge types. It moves and the earth trembles at it's passing. yes it becomes a bit tiresome towards the end, but what sludge doesn't? And it has the force to propel you into the record for the most part. I will listen to it again.

Release Details

Cavity

Supercollider (Reissue)

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