Laid Insignificant

Perhaps because they hailed from Florida rather than the sludgecore movement's primary stomping grounds of Louisiana (home to Crowbar, Eyehategod, Acid Bath, etc.), Miami's Cavity didn't always benefit from the same amount of media coverage as their consistently inventive body work rightfully deserved. The fact that this prolific oeuvre was spread across a confusing number of full-length and half-length releases, indie record labels (several of which have since gone t**s-up), and subject to significant musician turnover, certainly didn't help matters; but the subsequent stream of Cavity reissues undertaken by Hydra Head Industries is a testament to the music's enduring influence and quality. Laid Insignificant, then, is one of those salvage jobs: unearthing, remastering, and repackaging Cavity's original six-song mini-album, ten years after its initial 1998 release via famed artist Pushead's Bacteria Sour label, and adding a couple of missing tracks from the same sessions for what most observers will likely agree is a definitive version (certainly the only one you'll be able to buy for under $100, on eBay). At the time of its recording (April 1997), Cavity were unknowingly wrapping up the first phase of their career — marked by the bewildering volume of mini-releases mentioned above, and a resulting widespread anonymity outside the sludgecore underground — and verging on the second, which found them temporarily parting ways with vocalist Rene Barge and signing with Man's Ruin (another label run by a hard rock loving graphic artist, oddly enough) for what would become their most successful and accessible album ever, 1999's Supercollider. In many ways, Laid Insignificant bridged the aesthetic gorge between these two phases: the first represented by rough-hewn, hardcore-influenced material ranging from frantic blasts like "Marginal Man" (a re-recording of Drowning's less forceful "Marginal Man Blues") and the Black Flag-inspired "Spine I" and "II," to the ragged grind of "A Bitter Cold Spell," and combinations of the two such as the title track (ironically left off that first pressing) and "9 Fingers on the Spider"; the second, characterized by a slightly less savage, more disciplined metallic approach foreshadowed here by the admirably nuanced pairing of "The Woods" and "I May Go." Both phases, it should be noted, clearly had a huge effect on the many post-metal groups typically signed by Laid Insignificant's reissue label, Hydra Head, and those groups' enduring relevance offer another good reason for fans of great heavy music to pick up Laid Insignificant. (Oh, and a few words of caution to those lucky enough to possess Laid Insignificant's original pressing: gone is Pushead's more striking artwork [depicting a partially bald woman holding up a mystery card], collectible poster, and the band's cover of Septic Death.)