this album irresistible is the singing: Imagine Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan with attitude instead of angst, and you’ll have a sense of just how cool Ryan Shuck sounds. J.D. CONSIDINE
Elvis Presley fronting Metallica, anyone? On its third album—
a heady concept piece about a gang-like rock band traipsing through small towns in search of its frontman’s killer—this Danish outfit gives full and unapologetic bent to its Americana-lust, fusing rockabilly, country, and blues touches with staccato guitar attacks and double-time drum assaults. Michael Poulson & Co. make Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” stomp and deftly plow through the Social Distortion/Jimmy Work cover “Making Believe,” while originals such as “Hallelujah Goat,” “Light a Way,” “Wild Rover of Hell,” and “Mary Ann’s Place” (with Pernille Rosen-dahl of Swan Lee guesting) bring the thunder with a little bit of twang. GARY GRAFF
Before the city was known for indie-minded bands like Wilco and Tortoise, Chicago was
the capital of Big Blackened punk. Millions revisit this sound on their full-length debut, which, in a mere 27 minutes, evokes much of what was exciting about the Windy City in the late ’80s and early ’90s. The post-punk of that period figures heavily in the band’s gnarly guitar work and bruising beats (think Jesus Lizard and Rapeman). Millions might be guilty of rhythmic obtuseness, but the group has nonetheless emerged as one of the foremost advocates of an aesthetic that is sorely missed. BRENT BURTON
KAREN GREEN
Julien-K is not a person but a band, a synth-driven spin-off of Orgy that should easily
outshine that nu-goth group. It doesn’t hurt that the J-K sound is more groove-savvy, fleshing out the sequenced stomp of electronica with the overdrive roar of heavy rock, or that the best tunes—“Kick the Bass,” “Death to Analog,” “Systeme de Sexe”—understand precisely how to fold instrumental aggression into industrial-strength hooks. But what makes
Befitting the shadowy mythos surrounding Wolves in the Throne
Room—that they’re eco-terrorist separationists who wear pelts while farming their own food on a rural Washington state compound—the band creates lush, textured, blackened post-metal that artfully evades easy categorization. Their third full-length contains four CONTINUED
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