Choke - "Choke", 1997 Louisiana's Choke was one of those bands that could have been bigger, but for a variety of reasons didn't manage to take advantage of its best years; while pretty active between '94 and '99, it started losing momentum in the 2000s, after Hurricane Katrina first and Rita later disrupted the local scene, leaving a lot of musicians either homeless or with way bigger problems to take care of than running a band. While Eyehategod, Crowbar, Goatwhore, and a few others managed to pick themselves up and went on to become some of the most internationally recognized names to come out of that scene, Choke started having lineup troubles and only managed to release a bunch of demos in the years that followed, reverting back into obscurity and mostly appearing live occasionally in its home state. Not that the band has ever been on the verge of widespread notoriety; its two official full-length albums were self-produced, and despite a few coast-to-coast...

Hawg Jaw - "Don't Trust Nobody", 2006 Although "Send Out the Dogs" featured enough unreleased and hard-to-find material to be considered a full-length, as well as sounding very consistent throughout, "Don't Trust Nobody" is actually the sophomore effort by Hawg Jaw, and at the moment of this review, it's the last release by the band. It's weird to think that in almost 20 years since then, the band haven't released anything else, not even a 7-inch, despite having been occasionally revived for a local show in Louisiana; all three Hawg Jaw albums were unexpectedly remastered and uploaded to the streaming channels in 2021, but that was it. While we're at it, the remastered version of "Don't Trust Nobody" actually sounds better than the 2006 original, featuring more prominent drums and bass; in general, the production seems to breathe a bit more, and some dropouts in volume that appeared in the original mastering, specifi...

Hawg Jaw - "Send Out the Dogs", 2004 This Hawg Jaw record collects together a bunch of songs previously released on various compilations, and it features 5 unreleased tracks; considering the running time is just 31 minutes, I wonder why the band back then didn't take the chance to also include the previous 7-inches and demos (they are still unreleased on CD to this day). The 2021 version, released only on streaming channels, actually integrated at least two songs from the band's split with Manchurian Candidates and one from the split with Face First, making it a slightly more exhaustive retrospective. This said, "Send Out the Dogs" could be easily considered the second full-length by the band; half of the songs were brand new, the others were difficult to come by, and the sound quality between the various tracks doesn't show any obvious gaps, despite having been recorded in several separate sessions. In general, it doesn't feel like listening to a co...

 Hawg Jaw - "BeLIEve Nothing", 2000 Born in 1996 and revolving mostly around guitar player Gary Mader and singer Mike Dares, Hawg Jaw hails from the New Orleans underground scene; blending a more punk/hardcore approach with the sludgier overtones of local heroes Eyehategod, the band incarnates the Nawlins sound faithfully, and it's a pity that its popularity remained mostly confined to Louisiana. The fact that Mader went on to become Eyehategod's bass player in 2000 (and later on played guitar in Outlaw Order too) didn't help, since most of his time ended up being dedicated to that band, and probably most of his songwriting contributions too. While apparently still active, the band hasn't released anything since 2006, but it was quite busy between 1996 and 2006, putting out a number of demos and 7-inches (later compiled in a CD release) and two full-length records, the first being "BeLIEve Nothing" in 2000. The album is a raw, self-produced effort t...

 Cavity A.D. - "Wraith", 2019 After the disappointing comeback album "After Death" , I wasn't looking forward to another record by this new incarnation of Cavity. Released in 2019 in an even more limited edition than the previous one, for a total of 400 vinyl copies, "Wraith" actually proved to be a more focused effort, largely correcting the misfire of the former record. While following in the same stylistic footsteps of "After Death", the album sports a more refined production; the wall of distorted guitars is finally at the forefront when needed, with Ed Matus seemingly more comfortable in his role, even offering a number of overdubs, such as clean, haunting arpeggios, to keep the songs a bit more varied. Make no mistake, it's still a monolithic record, with basic song structures that revolve around minimalistic, repetitive riffs and ritualistic rhythms; still, there are more melodies, and the martial drumbeats are wrapped in an indust...

Cavity - "After Death", 2017 Prompted by a benefit show for a friend of the band, the reunion of Cavity (soon rebranded Cavity A.D., standing for "After Death") led the band to play a few live shows and to release a couple of records in very limited editions. The first, "After Death", was released in 2017 in 400 vinyl copies, with a repress of 500 copies in 2018 for the European market (featuring different cover artwork); it was also made available as a digital download. By listening to the album, consisting of just 4 long tracks, clocking in at around 38 minutes, it's easy to see why the band decided to release it as a limited edition for die-hard fans exclusively: it's probably the most anti-commercial record they could put out. Revolving around a lineup featuring long-time members Gorostiaga and Barge, plus Ed Matus (who played briefly with the band in 1996), the album is characterized by doomy dirges that sound more akin to drone/ambient music ...

Cavity - "On the Lam", 2001 A few years ago, Cavity's co-founder, main songwriter, and bass player Daniel Gorostiaga said in an interview that the band's style, over the course of its existence, was often determined by which drummer played on a certain release at that given moment; it explains the difference between a hectic, angular record such as "Laid Insignificant" and a more linear, Sabbath-esque effort such as "Supercollider" , for instance. "On the Lam" sees the departure of guitarist Anthony Vialon, replaced by Jason Landrian (later in Black Cobra) to back up second guitarist Ryan Weinstein, and the comeback of both drummer Jorge Alvarez and singer Rene Barge; whoever expected a back-to-basics , more hardcore record probably ended up disappointed, though. Despite the line-up change from "Supercollider" and the names involved, in fact, it's not a complete departure from the style of that record, sounding more like a...

 Cavity - "Supercollider", 1999 "Supercollider" is generally the most revered Cavity record; it's certainly the band's most well-known. It actually was the first Cavity effort that I listened to, since everybody in the scene was raving about it, and it also was the easiest to find on CD back in the day. I'm not sure how much being released on Frank Kozik's Man's Ruin Records helped the reputation of the album; it certainly gave it a push, though, and the band's relentless touring - as well as putting out a myriad of releases - probably started to pay back around that time in terms of popularity. This said, I'm not really sure that "Supercollider" is actually the best Cavity record; it's probably the most accessible, but I think the best phase of the band was between 1995 and 1998, with "Laid Insignificant" being the pinnacle of the band's creativity.  One of my main gripes about the record is that, at the tim...

Cavity - "Laid Insignificant", 1998-2008 Like many other Cavity records, "Laid Insignificant" has a bit of a troubled history; originally released in 1998 as a lengthy EP on Bacteria Sour Records and featuring 6 songs, including a Septic Death cover version, it was reissued in 2008 by Hydra Head Records; this version included unearthed material from the same sessions that was inexplicably left out of the original, bringing the total running time to 33 minutes and making it the de facto third Cavity full-length album. For some reason, the Septic Death cover was left out this time, and it's a pity, since it was a worthy reinterpretation of the original; another song recorded during the same sessions, "Covered Twice", originally released on a compilation, was also omitted. The addition of both songs would have brought the running time to about 40 minutes, making it an even more satisfying reissue. This said, the Hydra Head version of "Laid Insignifi...