Marsupial — GENUS THYLACINUS [self-released]

Seeing as how this is the band’s fourth cd and it’s utterly brilliant, you’d think I would have heard of them before, but that just goes to show you how hard it is to keep up with things in a world filled with entirely too many bands releasing entirely too many albums. A couple of decades ago a band of this caliber would have been nationally known (if even only in hip, progressive circles) by this time, but now even great bands manage to get lost in the shuffle, especially if they are not easy to classify or market.

Hailing from Asheville, NC, this quartet combines elements of prog rock, country, jazz, and free-form improv to create a sound that fuses the best elements of these styles into something that’s both catchy and innovative yet surprisingly accessible. Their propensity for free-form jam sessions streamlined into actual songs puts them in the territory of bands like the Grateful Dead and Phish, but these guys are far more disciplined, never allowing their exploration of song structures to devolve into endless soloing, and their actual sound is closer to that of an extremely progressive country-rock band.

I normally avoid listening to bands like this because they tend toward the self-indulgent, but this band is not like those bands; they are not only all stellar musicians (the guitar tracks are particularly amazing, although I have no idea who’s doing what, since three of them play guitar), but they have a sense of restraint that’s rare for a band so drenched in progressive stylings. At times they resemble a country band weaned on King Crimson, only without Fripp’s overly academic approach and the retention of the pulsing groove that makes the best country music so rhythmically compelling. This is the sound of greatness; too bad it’s being drowned out by bands with far less talent and more marketing muscle.

Click here for the original review.

Short Take Review: MarsupiaL – Genus Thylacinus (MarsupialMusic) There are a lot of people out there waiting for this, the fourth CD from North Carolina based band MarsupiaL. This quartet of twin guitars, bass and drums has been working steadily since forming around 2000 and their fan base has been growing steadily. Taking their musical foundation from bands such as The Grateful Dead, Phish and Umphrey’s McGee, these guys straddle a bunch of musical boundaries. The disc starts out sounding a little like Dire Straits, and then shifts into something a little more Southern Rock oriented before shifting gears a couple more times. The music has an almost contradictory structured jamming quality. We slide from one genre to the next all the while displaying a roots, southern country flavoured tone. The disc has a nice mixture of short and long tracks, as long as “Lead On” [8:46] and “Naked in the Hall of Deduction” [9:39]. Here the music effortlessly slides around changing dynamics, time and tempo, one guitar will provide a distorted atmospheric backdrop while the other provides a delicate lead line. Other tracks clock in around 3-5-minutes where the composition tends to focus more on a straight forward song. Fans of the bands mentioned above will know instantly what to expect, but if you are unfamiliar you might want to check out the band at www.marsupialmusic.com (Jerry Lucky, 9/6/09)

Progression Magazine, Issue 57, Spring / Summer 2009

MarsupiaL
Genus Thylacinus

2009 (CD, 43:46); Independent Release
Style: Alternative/Country/Pschadelic
Sound 3 | Composition 3 | Musicianship 3 | Performance 3
Total Rating 12

MarsupiaL blends vintage country psych with alt-country and 70’s Southern guitar rock in forging a sound difficult to classify. Odd combinations of influences with generous instrumental interludes make genus thylacinus simultaneously original and familiar.

“Lead On” opens with a Dire Straits feel giving way to an extended space guitar solo that slowly builds to maximum intensity. When the rifting gets too hard to handle, some Moby Grape harmonies take the batton and run awhile before returning for a few more measures of guitar histrionics. The nine-minute piece finally closes out with the aforementioned Dire Straits-inflected verse/chorus.

The second cut is Lynard Skynard personified, followed by the 10-minute “Naked In The Hall Of Seduction”, a mental stew of early Steve Miller, Moby Grape, and Pilgrimage-era Wishbone Ash.

The Grateful Dead, Allman Brothers, Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, Family, The Great Speckled Bird and the Groundhogs all rear their rocking heads on this fourth release by the North Carolina Quartet. Grab a brew, sit back, and enjoy.

by Warren Baker

Click here for the original review @ www.progressiveears.com

North Carolina band Marsupiual have taken the wide variety of music influences of the region (jam band, southern rock, country), missed them together with some non-traditional song structures and a mellow Pink Floyd feel, and come up with a collection of songs that although not complex or challenging are catchy and very difficult to get out of your head. The diversity in sound of their CD genus thylacinus can be partially attributed to having three different songwriters in the band, and each one’s songs seem influenced by different things.

The two of the three songs by Chris Carter (drums, guitars, vocals) clock in at over 8 minutes and show jam band leanings. “Lead On” starts with a clean guitar rhythm during the vocals and quick chords of distorted guitars over the changes. The song then breaks into a 3.5 minute instrumental interlude. Although punctuated by lead guitar work it is definitely a vehicle for musical interplay as opposed to solo gamesmanship. The song returns for a short vocal portion related to the original theme before another musical interlude and then a return to the main song melody/vocal motif.

“Naked In the Halls Of Seduction” begins with a short guitar de-tuned section before entering the main part of the song: a clean guitar with echo playing a simple three chord rhythm that will stick with you for days. This leads to other sections with musical interplay somewhere in the grey area between post-rock and space-rock.

“There Is A Better World” is a short acoustic number punctuated by tasty pedal steel fills.

The two songs by Ian Reardon (guitars, vocals) are more in the southern rock vein. “The Man Who Knows Things” contains vocal sections with pretty picking over acoustic guitar chords but has fills and a solo with a nasty guitar tone that is a sonically perfect foil for the acoustic background. “The Tide” is similar but starts off in a jazz-rock vibe using chord inversions and a clean guitar until that same nasty guitar intros the lyrics. The song then breaks into a heavy rock number with that same lovely guitar tone rocking out over some alternative-sounding progressions.

Forrest Smith’s numbers are more diverse. “In Between” has a chorus that sound like U2’s “Angel of Harlem” and a pretty acoustic guitar solo that again is a compliment to the song, not a spotlight. “The Goodbye Waltz” is an alt-country rock gem that has some effective vocal harmonies. “Sucker Punch” is an aggressive instrumental song bordering on prog-metal with some de-tuned guitar giving the song a slight Tool feeling and some stoner-rock solos.

If you are more into the mind-challenging progressive variations, then this probably won’t stimulate you enough. If melody and relaxing to some well-crafted songs that are small “p” progressive is more your taste, Marsupial’s genus thylacinus might be for you. Accessible, but definitely in the art-rock area.

The first thing one must consider when listening to Genus Thylacinus by MarsupiaL (with a capital L), is that this is a bona fide jam band. Out of Asheville, NC, MarsupiaL’s sound mixes progressive rock with southern rock and a taste of jazz. What results is a very winding and mellow type of music, like the rock equivalent of a babbling brook. This quartet’s sound is just plain laid-back and unobtrusive. They’re not flashy, but that doesn’t mean there’s not talent here. Quite the contrary, there is a strongly prevalent degree of musicianship at work that is sometimes hard to find in a band, even with several releases under their belts (let’s face it: some bands just aren’t that good at what they do).

The eight song album goes by relatively fast, even when all but two of the songs clock in at over four minutes. Track one is just shy of nine minutes, while track three comes close to ten minutes, which goes to show that the band likes to meander about in the songs that they play. I actually thought that track one, “Lead On,” was two different songs until it reprised into its chorus at the end.

This is an album perfect for sitting around with friends on a summer night while kicking back a few beers. I’m not saying that it’s only good as background music, but it’s just very “chill,” so to speak. It has a sort of Frank Zappa-ish vibe to it, and feels very much like one of the classic rock jam bands of years gone by. This kind of music simply isn’t seen as much any more, and that’s a shame, because these guys have a lot of talent.

While this isn’t something I would play religiously, I would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes a good jam band. The first track, “Lead On,” is especially fun, with some great guitar solos. The southern rock feel of “The Man Who Knows Things” makes it stand out well from the rest of the album. I definitely wouldn’t mind listening to some more MarsupiaL.

Welcome to the 31st Year of the Bele Chere Festival!

“The Bele Chere Festival is an annual 3-day festival on the streets of historic Downtown Asheville. The festival features four stages of free- live music and an impressive array of arts and crafts; as well as entertainment and activities for children. Surrounded by the natural beauty of the mountains of Western North Carolina- come join us for one of the Southeast’s largest free outdoor street festivals.

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The purposes of description can also be useful to find “labels” in order to understand what kind of music a group is proposing, but ultimately you are exaggerating and speaking of prog rock, or “eclectic”, as happens often in recent years, almost verging on the ridiculous. The fact is simply that there are quite a few artists around who can make a proposal full of music or contamination of a wide variety of influences, so that identifying a specific genre… is totally impossible. Take the case of MarsupiaL. This is a U.S. band of North Carolina, founded in 2000 and composed by Ian Reardon on guitar and vocals, Forrest Smith on guitar, Brad Mehder on bass and Chris Carter on drums and voice. Yes, keyboards, nothing … But, I hope that you readers have already understood that there is no need to use keyboards to be included [as] progressive rock. In fact, prog is only one element that we can find in “Genus thylacinus”, [an] album that shows the capabilities of what [MarsupiaL] brings: energetic rock, long instrumental passages worthy of the best jam bands, intriguing vocal melodies sometimes elegantly modern at times closer to the American tradition, without disdaining incursions into progressive and jazz-rock.

Imagine … Pink Floyd, Phish, Allman Brothers Band, Dire Straits and Radiohead, alternating instrumental oneiric situations and mysterious, fluid electric guitar solos that gives vibrance, and that cross and give the change to drive songs, sung moments direct and catchy, long instrumental moments dictated by the ability of musicians improvising, melodic insights of immediate impact and even leaps of a certain aggressiveness … Imagine all this and you have an idea more or less vague proposal of MarsupiaL. Of course, if your world is made of mellotron solo, symphonic prog, new-prog, fairies and gnomes, I do not think this product might interest you. But if you like those groups able to rotate 360 degrees and always with convincing results, this disc will be a delightful discovery.

by Peppe Di Spirito

This is a bit of an odd cove. Seemingly teetering between the worlds of prog rock, jazz fusion and jam bands, North Carolinas Marsupial can never be accused of easy listening.

They’ve been on the go since 2000 and have released three albums prior to this one - “Dancing About Architecture”, “Moby [Fleck]” and “Curtains”. They hit you hard right from the off, with the eight minute plus ‘Lead On’, um, leading you through an abundance of styles and moods.

However, there are some simpler songs on offer as well, and it’s tunes like ‘The Man Who Knows Things’ and ‘In Between’, which could suck in a wider audience, especially the latter with its countryish vibe.

It’s definitely the jamband fraternity who will respond most favourably to the range of music on offer, with fans of String Cheese Incident and Umphrey’s McGee unlikely to feel lost at a Marsupial show.

An album that rewards repeated plays, I did find myself skipping over ‘Sucker Punch’, but with only 10% of the record lost to me, that’s a mighty fine return.

Sound Track Potential playlist

by Alli Marshall in Vol. 15 / Iss. 50 on 07/08/2009

Genus Thylacinus by MarsupiaL

The eight-song collection, released this year by perennial Asheville rock band MarsupiaL veers wildly from the bouncy, pedal steel-infused, Grateful Dead-esque “In Between” to the thrashing guitars, crashing percussion and general hardcore mayhem of “Sucker Punch.” The easy answer to the schizophrenic feel of Genus Thylacinus is that the band’s four members take turns writing the songs Still, even the compositions of individual musicians are disparate: Drummer/guitarist Chris Carter wrote both the groovy-if-melancholic opener, “Lead On,” as well as the fuzzy, churning “Naked in the Hall of Seduction.” Guitarist Ian Reardon composed jazz-jam “The Tide,” which bubbles through tasteful cymbal rolls and reverb. His slower “The Man Who Knows Things” pairs Allman Brothers flavor with modern percussion. The disc’s final track, “There Is A Better World,” is perhaps its most gentle. Vocal harmonies and Smith’s excellent pedal steel earn the lush (if heartbreaking) song single status.

Marsupial: genus thylacinus
Melodic/Progressive Rock
Rating: 3.75/5.0
Independent/Self-Promotion
http://www.marsupialmusic.com
www.myspace.com/marsupialband
Review: Craig Hartranft, 07.05.2009

I rarely say this, and most artists live for this: Asheville prog rockers Marsupial, though fitting the genre, have their own unique style. On their latest project genus thylacinus (scientific name for an extinct marsupial), this quartet obviously draws inspiration from 70’s rock, prog and otherwise, their southern roots, and maybe some rock-jazz fusion. The mix is not eclectic, but it is creative and more than a bit ingenious.

On the progressive side, numbers like Lead On and Naked In the Hall Of Seduction are lengthy pieces which showcase all the performers. The music is not pretentious or bombastic, but rather leans towards melodic rock or AOR. Sometimes both songs (as well as others) seem merely to be canvases for the lead guitarist to paint. Yet, on the latter, the bass work is marvelous.

Other offerings cover melodic rock (The Tide, The Goodbye Waltz) or near southern style, Allman Brothers, melodic rock and AOR especially The Man Who Know Things and There Is A Better World. At least one song, The Goodbye Waltz, was overly somber to the point of being depressing. My only reservation goes to the vocal performance which are mostly droll and have very little range. The lack of vocals on the the pseudo-pyschedelic heavy rock instrumental, Sucker Punch, makes it the killer track on the album. Overall, genus thylacinus in musical composition, is adventurous and so, quite intriguing and entertaining.

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Local Color host Laura Blackley spotlights emerging and established artists from all over our listening area, with a focus on those who are pushing the envelope just a bit. We feature recorded live performances from WNCW’s own Studio B and from area venues, as well as official releases, demos and artist interviews.

CD REVIEW: Marsupial - Genus Thylacinus
By Don Sechelski - 05/27/2009 - 08:19 PM EDT

Artist: Marsupial
Album: Genus Thylacinus
Website: http://www.marsupialmusic.com
Genre: Progressive Rock/Jam band
Sounds Like: Phish, King Crimson, Allman Brothers
Technical Grade: 9/10
Production/Musicianship Grade: 9/10
Commercial Value: 6/10
Performance Skill: 10/10
Best Songs: The Man Who Knows Things, Naked In The Hall Of Seduction

CD Review:

Marsupial is a four man band from Asheville, North Carolina that follows the footsteps of jam bands like The Dead and Phish. Their new release, Genus Thylacinus draws on influences as diverse as Genesis and Frank Zappa.

The band consists of Ian Reardon on guitar and vocals, Forrest Smith on guitar, Brad Mehder on bass, and Chris Carter on drums and vocals. The songwriting credits indicate a high degree of collaboration and the result is a very tight band sound and some fine guitar driven rock. Lead On is the first cut. Its jam sound is reminiscent of Phish. But the second cut, The Man Who Knows Things surprised me. Its southern rock sound was more akin to The Allman Brothers at their jamming best. Naked In The Hall Of Seduction brought back memories of King Crimson while In Between, featuring Forrest Smith on pedal steel was eerily similar to The Grateful Dead. The Tide draws on jazz influences.

Genus Thylacinus is an eclectic collection of songs that seem to pay tribute to a wide variety of sources but Marsupial pulls it off. Their guitar driven rock touches a lot of bases but doesn’t miss a bet. If you are a fan of any kind of jam band music, Marsupial probably has a song for you.

Marsupial – Genus Thylacinus
Missy Andersen – Missy Andersen
Whiskey Dawn – Dear Nashville
Mark Gothard – Midnight
Vanderbilt University – Music In The Commons

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Playlist:

Artist/ title/ label-source

7th Order/ Throwing Fate The Slip/—CD
Suddyn/ Generation/—CD
The Glamorous Youth/ Rainy Day CD
VesuviaSonic/ Dig Down/ Citation CD
Poopy Dys/ Squid Describes Eye Cancer/—CD
Afterthem/ Bighead/—CD
Francois Couture/ Metro/ Disques Boghei CD
Marsupial/ In Between/ Glass Onyon CD
Velveeta Heartbreak/ Crazy Uncles/ Cut and Paste—mp3
Tracey Whitney/ Ordinary Day/ Baby Doll CD
Keldamuzik aka Diva/ Yip Yap/—CD
Foreign Cinema/ Arbitrary Map Mode/—CD
Tom Hamilton/ BRQ Ten/ Mutable CD
Bright Duplex/ It’s Geese/ Thorsrubberhammer CD
Tom Furgas/ OneOfAKind 23April 2009 / Tom Furgas Editions CD

MarsupiaL: Genus Thylacinus

Here’s a CD that’s about as unique as it gets. North Carolina’s MarsupiaL prove to be impossible to classify on their latest release Genus Thylacinus, a fascinating collection of songs that contain elements of prog, Southern Rock, jam band improvisation, rock, and jazz. The four piece certainly can play their instruments, in fact, Ian Reardon (guitars/vocals), Forrest Smith (guitars/pedal steel), Brad Mehder (bass), and Chris Carter (drums/vocals/guitars) show plenty of virtuoso moments throughout Genus Thylacinus, but most importantly these eight songs are all catchy and memorable, sure to get you humming and tapping your toes as well as stimulating your need for driving, instrumentally challenging music.

Opening cut “Lead On” is a near 9-minute tour de force of jam-band excitement and pop hooks, catchy melodies and soaring guitar harmonies flying all over the mix, and it’s followed up by the tasty Allman Brothers Band meets Lynyrd Skynyrd slab o’ Southern Rock that is “The Man Who Knows Things”, complete with some stunning slide guitar work. “Naked In the Hall of Seduction” is a bizarre but enjoyable two headed monster, kicking off as a rootsy rock song but then morphing into a spacey prog rock number with spooky electronic effects, jazzy guitar passages, and tricky drum fills. On “In Between”, the band goes for a Grateful Dead/Phish vibe, and dive into a sort of trippy, psychedelic Southern Rock state of mind on “The Tide”, somewhere between the Allmans, Marshall Tucker Band, and the Buffalo Springfield. Check out the killer finale on this one, as after four minutes of laid back strumming the band crashes the mix with thunderous guitar riffs, stinging lead solos, and pounding drum beats. The rootsy, Southern drawl of “The Goodbye Waltz” delivers the CDs one true ballad, and it’s a good one, complete with passionate vocals, and a nice mix of acoustic and electric guitars. MarsupiaL do their best to create some noisy garage rock with “Sucker Punch” (Neil Young’s Live Rust anyone?), a real raucous number featuring some behemoth, distorted guitar riffs that border on the stoner/doom metal scene, and the album ends with the lush acoustic piece “There Is a Better World”.

Again, ultimately this one’s real hard to classify, but the end result is just a satisfying rock album from a bunch of Southern dudes that manages to push many buttons and works on every level. This is a band to watch out for.

Track Listing

1. Lead On
2. The Man Who Knows Things
3. Naked in the Hall of Seduction
4. In Between
5. The Tide
6. The Goodbye Waltz
7. Sucker Punch
8. There Is a Better World

Added: May 20th 2009
Reviewer: Pete Pardo

Score:

Related Link: Band Website

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MarsupiaL “Genus Thylacinus” (self-produced, release date: 2009-03-24)

Ian Reardon (g, voc), Forrest Smith (g), Brad Mehder (b) and Chris Carter (dr, voc) come from Asheville, North Carolina, USA. The capital L at the end of MarsupiaL is not the only extravagance that the band allows itself. Although the songs are not, as the press release announces, the brightest star in the Prog sky — the mix of jam- and jazz-rock has too few links to Prog and Psychedelic for it to be offered as Progressive Rock — the instrumental expanded song landscape nevertheless creates a proper mood and maintains it on a high level.

The quartet composes emotionally dense arrangements that are not especially complex, and allow extended guitar solos and duets to thrive in the virtuoso center. The harmony vocals of the two singers — two voices intone the choruses — sound, if I may say so, a little “risky” here and there. It seems that the music’s own harmonic language fades a bit. The verses have broad conceptual simplicity; the song creates the partial impression of late seventies Wishbone Ash playing (after their big time) in search of inspiration from earlier. Here and there are wide country-folk touches, on the CSN-chorus songs with spicy Lynyrd Skynyrd guitars racing around (without coming really close to the high-intensity names mentioned).

No question, the songs are appealing compositions; have character and make an impression; are engaging and strongly expressive. Prog(ressive Rock), however, it is not. A great American rock band with folk and jazz in their roots, which understands the intensely tuneful reflective harmonic beauty of long expansive songs.

Click here for Google’s English Translation.

MarsupiaL (avec un L majuscule à la fin!) est un groupe américain originaire de Asheville en Caroline du Nord. Ses musiciens se sont rencontrés à la fin de l’année 2000 alors qu’ils étaient à l’Appalachian State University. C’est après leurs études qu’ils se sont installés à Asheville. Le groupe est influencé par les jam bands tel Umphrey’s McGee.

Mais leurs influences ne s’arrêtent pas là. Rien que l’écoute de “Lead On” nous rappelle étrangement un certain Nirvana. C’est très frappant pendant les parties chantées. Ensuite on trouve dans leur musique des parties plus jazz-rock, Zappa et King Crimson ne sont pas loin. Ils travaillent aussi les parties vocales, deux des quatre chantent.

MarsupiaL mélange les genres. Cela va du jazz-rock au rock progressif en passant par des moments tout simplement rock. Les tons sont bien américains. Certains espaces leur permettent de développer des improvisations. Elles sont parfois énergiques, et à d’autres moments planantes, presque psychédéliques. Pink Floyd n’est alors pas bien loin, mais pas celui de Barrett, plutôt celui de Waters. Dans tout cela, ils ont malgré tout réussi à glisser une chanson plus facile, “In Between”, qui ferait un bon single. La ballade “The Goodbye Waltz” conviendrait tout aussi bien. Mais, pas de doutes, c’est quand ils se montrent plus sophistiqués, plus tortueux, plus exubérants qu’on les aime, ou alors dans le fabuleux “Sucker Punch” très Zeppelinien.

Si le groupe est peu connu par ici, chez eux, en Caroline du Nord, ils ont acquis une bonne notoriété. Leur premier album “Dancing About Architecture” est sorti en 2004. Ensuite, il y a eu “Moby Fleck” en 2006, un concept album qui est entré dans le Top 20 régional, et “Curtains” en 2007. Cet opus est donc déjà leur quatrième. Il était donc temps de les découvrir. A votre tour !

Jean-Pierre Lhoir
Pays: US
Marsupial Music 884501111430
Sortie: 2009/03/24

BY BRENT FLEURY

MARSUPIAL

Genus Thylacinus

http://marsupialmusic.com

Opening with an eight-minute Fleetwood Mac-esque tune which quickly morphs into a trippy extended guitar solo, I initially wasn’t sure where this band was either coming from or headed. But after a few cycles through the album…I still wasn’t sure. Suffice it to say, these guys are part rock band, part jam band, part jazz quartet and part everything else. Obviously heavily influenced by the Grateful Dead (right down to the vocal harmonies), Marsupial doesn’t allow itself to go more than a single track without changing up its style (sometimes just barely) and giving the listener something new. I always respect bands that make it difficult to pigeonhole them. It does make my job harder of course, but it makes my soul happier.

“In Between” mixes a carefree reggae feel with an ethereal pedal steel guitar to create an intriguing composition by the end of which it’s simply impossible to not be wearing a smile. “Naked in the Hall of Seduction,” the longest track on the album at nine minutes and 39 seconds, alternates distortion-heavy licks with lighthearted, Jerry Garcia strumming and even tosses in some odd transitional effects evocative of Pink Floyd’s 1975 Wish You Were Here or even Mr. Bungle’s sophomore album, Disco Volante. “Sucker Punch” lives up to its name, taking the listener by surprise with a head-banging instrumental complete with 80s-style hammer-ons, a flash or two of Living Colour’s Vernon Reid and even a nod to the late, great Dimebag Darrell. As a result, (and this should be no surprise to anyone who regularly reads this column) this is my favorite song on the album.

Genus Thylancinus is probably one of the best all-around listens I’ve had in several months. I like each song for completely different reasons, and that almost never happens. Keep it up, guys.

When your aspiration is to traverse as many musical boundaries as possible, there is bound to be some friction along the way. As one of the most prominent members of the North Carolina progressive scene (see also: jam band), Asheville’s MarsupiaL (www.marsupialmusic.com) has successfully melded rock, jazz, Southern roots and whatever else happens to strike them into four albums of worthy musical praise to their pronounced influences.

Their latest, Genus Thylacinus, bears the imprint of years spent immersed in the sounds of the Grateful Dead, Frank Zappa and King Crimson — eight tracks of sharply produced and well-polished playing. But like a lot of prog rock, it sometimes just doesn’t seem to go anywhere. The opening track “Lead On” seems to speak to their propensity to break down musical barriers in their work, but while the five-minute instrumental bridge sounds nice, it’s purpose to the piece is somewhat dubious. Pair that with the nine-minute “Naked in the Hall of Seduction” and the album seems repetitive and formulaic at worst. At best, however, their instrumentation is inspired and stimulating. “Sucker Punch” is a forceful sludge-rock instrumental that brings most of the album’s hard bite, while “In Between” is an island-flavored quickhitter that offers a much needed break from the extended jams. It ends on a lyrical high note with “There Is a Better World,” an evocative track about letting go. Applaud them for being able to shift directions as an entire unit on a dime, though exploration merely for exploration’s sake can easily get you lost.

by Ryan Snyder