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 different take on the subject matter.

Barge, known for his frightening screams, here sounds slightly more restrained than usual, more in line with Mike Williams of Eyehategod or Kirk Fisher of Buzzov*en in the "...at a Loss" and - especially - the "Revelation: Sick Again" era. His vocals often try to follow the melody of the riffs, occasionally coming off as Kyuss's John Garcia, only if he lived in a Deep South swamp and smoked meth the whole time. This approach gives the songs a punkish, almost stoner-rock vibe; it is particularly noticeable on tracks such as the title track or "Leave Me Up". On top of it all, the singer processed the vocals through a distortion effect, not unlike -(16)-'s Cris Jerue. 

The album sounds like the logical follow-up to "Supercollider", with Black Sabbath-inspired, southern-metal riffs comparable to Goatsnake, Eyehategod, Bongzilla, and Iron Monkey; at times, it's reminiscent of "Somewhere Between the Train Station and the Dumping Grounds", too, although not as brutal. The production, once more handled by Jeremy Du Bois, is the best the band ever had, featuring fat, round bass and guitars and deep-sounding drums, taking advantage of the room's natural reverb. A lot of the credit also goes to Alvarez's drumming; the guy is a hard hitter that can play with a groove and behind the beat but is also able to switch to a more agile style when needed, for example on "Sung from a Goad" and "Willy Williams". 

Compared to "Supercollider", the songwriting seems a bit less predictable, with song structures that resort to more varied rhythms and that often veer into long instrumental jams. This spontaneity gives the record an immersive quality; the feeling is akin to watching the band rehearse in a large, empty venue while you're smoking a blunt, as opposed to the claustrophobic and paranoid vibe of some of the band's older records. One could see this as either a positive or a negative thing; the material doesn't sound nearly as urgent or psychotic as in the mid-90s, but at the same time it's still some of the best, grooviest sludge/stoner metal to come out of the early '00s.

I'm not a fan of the plain red album artwork by Aaron Turner, another artsy-fartsy job in the long line of generic, by-the-numbers covers the band suffered along its discography; the eerie urban pictures inside the booklet, showing the exterior of a seedy motel at night and a deserted waiting room of what seems to be a train station, convey the feeling of the album's title a lot better. The motel shot was used as an alternative cover for the picture disc, and it would have worked wonderfully for the CD edition too (see the mock-up picture above, featuring graphics taken from the picture disc). 

The band split up shortly after the album's release, and it regrouped only in 2015, although as a rather different entity. While it's unfortunate that Cavity didn't capitalize on the opportunities it was met with along its career, the band released a significant amount of essential material during its initial 10-year tenure. "On the Lam" was the excellent close of a chapter, and it's definitely a more captivating and energetic record than the more celebrated "Supercollider".