Album Reviews

ANTLER
Nothing a Bullet Couldn't Cure
(Small Stone)
Why is it so much of the best Southern rock is coming from the North? Antler hails from Boston, but there are enough cowboy hats, beards and fringed jackets adorning the songs on its second album that you'd think otherwise. In brawny rockers like "My Favorite Enemy" and "Deep in a Hole," massive guitar licks contrast with elegant piano parts, while the rhythm section keeps a subtle swing in its stomp. Singer/producer Craig Riggs is the eye of the storm; his soulful growl oozes conviction. With Riggs' pipes and the band's deft hand with melody, Antler is one of the few neo-classic rock acts that can get away with ballads like "Reminds Me of a Way," "A River Underground" and "Behind the Key." Good, chewy stuff. Michael Toland

THE ARK
State of the Ark
(Rebel Group)
Ever wondered what New Order would sound like if Marc Bolan had been its songwriter? Don't worry: the Ark has imagined it for you. The Swedish band's third album puts a glamorous spin on synth pop, letting the clever lyrics ride big, fat hooks made of digital bytes. This isn't to say there aren't plenty of guitars and real drums, but the arrangements center around Ola Salo's sticky-sweet keyboard licks and charismatic vocals. Your tolerance for 80s-style synth pop will vary, of course, though the snarky wit and catchy melodies of "The Others," "Deliver Us From Free Will" and "One of Us is Gonna Die Young" (as classic a pop single as anything released in the last decade) and the genuine heart in the ballad "No End" may put any aversion to rest. Michael Toland [buy it]

THE BABYLON BOMBS
Doin' You Nasty
(Smilodon)
A pendulum swings between two sides, and if one arc takes us to the new wave 80s in the form of Franz Ferdinand and its ilk, it's inevitable that we'd get to the other side of the Reagan Era: hair metal. It's been bubbling up in the underground for a while now, of course, and, along with Canada's Crystal Pistol and the U.K.'s Black Velvets, Sweden's Babylon Bombs are positioning themselves in the vanguard with their second album Doin' You Nasty. Being a product of dirtier, less upwardly mobile beginnings (the quartet's debut disk is a gutter rock gem in the vein of the New York Dolls or the Dogs D'amour), the Bombs forgo the spangles and glitter, less interested in banging supermodels and blathering about wealth they don't have than in sneering at life to the tune of big power chords and bigger rock choruses. When the Bombs hit their target, as on "Hometown Hero," "Proud" and the ridiculous but oh-so-catchy "White Trash Beauty," it's hard not to get caught in the shrapnel. Michael Toland

BAD WIZARD
Sky High
(Howler)
On Sky High, NYC atom bomb Bad Wizard rebounds sharply from the disappointing #1 Tonight. The quintet's fourth record not only restores the irresistible hard rock hooks of the band's first couple of albums, it also introduces a sense of dynamics into the formerly full throttle atmosphere—check "Strawberry" and "Jealous Man" for some kool kicks. Frontdude Curtis Brown still scorches microphones, but on "Black Navigator" and the title track, he also adds a sedate, emotion-drenched croon to his vocal arsenal. Of course, the Wizard can still burn down the barn with tunes like "13x Around the World" and "He's a Rat." Righteous. Michael Toland [buy it]

BLACK MOSES
Royal Stink
(Times Beach)
Led by Jim Jones, former lead singer of underappreciated UK rockers Thee Hypnotics, Black Moses kicks out the jams with sleaze and groove on its second album Royal Stink. The testosterone-power trio gets nasty and hard on "Can't Breathe (Turkey Neck)," "So Good" and the title tune, letting the rhythms drive the songs forward and the riffs ram themselves up your snout. The little head is definitely doing the thinking here, but the band is having such a good time venting its inner stud it's easy to get caught up in its tumescence. Michael Toland [buy it]

CARDINALE
31:13
(Arclight)
If you guessed that the title refers to the length of this Austin-based metal beast's debut disk, you're correct. The fearsome foursome stretches out on one long track that undulates between pounding crunch fury and sedate dreamy waves. This isn't mindless jamming by a long shot, though; this is a composition, with every tempo change and melodic shift mapped out and carefully orchestrated. 31:13 is mature metal, in the best sense of each term. Michael Toland [buy it]

CROOKED ROADS
Heartbreak Sampler
(Crooked Roads)
Crooked Roads, a California country band led by Chris Dingman, claims, "You don't need cowboy boots or a honky-tonk to feel blue/I got on my tennis shoes now and any street corner will do." This claim is apparent on the group's most recent album Heartbreak Sampler, which is Americana music for the white-collar man. While some tunes are a bit too twangy, overall the Bay Town screenwriter-turned-songwriter has released an emotionally powerful piece. Deirdre Walsh [buy it]

RAY DAVIES
Other People's Lives
(V2)
Other People's Lives, Ray Davies' first solo album since 1998, has been one of the most highly-anticipated records of the past who knows how many years. Being no fool, Davies is smart enough to not try to sound like his old band. He replaces the Kinks' tight rock & roll with a lush, self-consciously mature sound perfect for triple-A radio, but that hits the top of the bland-out meter pretty quickly through its hour-plus running time. While none of these songs will embarrass Davies in his dotage (well, maybe "Stand Up Comic"), none stand out as new classics, either. That nearly all of them are too damn long doesn't help. It's easy to admire the work Davies obviously put into Other People's Lives, but it's equally as easy to find it dull. It sounds churlish to find fault with such a beloved musical figure, and this record will be popular with a certain demographic merely for existing. But personally I can't imagine that I'll listen to this well-crafted but bloodless album past the time it takes me to write this review. Michael Toland [buy it]

DEADMAN
DeadMan
(Crusher)
Like so many Swedish bands, DeadMan is love with the 60s and early 70s. Interestingly, the Gothenburg quartet is less enamored of psychedelia and early metal than it is of the jamming, vaguely trippy rock & roll that would eventually become what we now call classic rock. When it's good, as on "Mumbo Gumbo," "Goin' Over the Hill" and "Season of the Dead," it's very good indeed, with just the right balance of melody and retro slavishness. When it's not so good, as on the tedious closing epic "Deep Forest Green," it can be maddening. And the singer's vibrato-laden tenor may be a dealbreaker regardless of how you feel about the songs. But give DeadMan a shot to find out. Michael Toland

DEATHSPELL OMEGA
Kénôse
(Norma Evangelium Diaboli/AJNA/Southern Lord)
Mysterious black metal fury from somewhere south of the bleakest pit. The three long tracks here build from approaching, inexorable doom to thrashing speed deviltry and back, going from enigma to thuggery with control and, believe it or not, taste. At its best Kénôse is as hallucinogenic as it is cathartic; when it dips below the high standard it sets for itself, it's merely top-flight black metal. If Aleister Crowley ever took a bad acid trip, Deathspell Omega channels it here. Michael Toland [buy it]