Elkhorn

Elkhorn’s been known to inhabit these pages pretty frequently, a psych-folk frontrunner for the better part of the past decade. As they embark on their third album for the year, including the previously released live LP with Mike Gangloff and an announced, but unreleased slab for VHF, the band swerves from their usual acoustic-electric interplay. With Jesse swapping the 12-string for bass, he parlays his work with The Heavy Lidders into a power trio setup for the just-released Other Worlds. The album finds the band as heavy as they’ve ever been — clouds gathered and a storm raging. Often the acoustics act as a bit of salve to the singe of their works, but here Sheppard propels the record with a doomed thunder that underscores Drew’s lava flow leads.

As torn as our own firma seems to be these days, the Worlds that the band inhabits on the album are tinged with tumult and torn by tempests. Ian McColm returns to the kit, picking back up where he left his sticks on Distances. The band merges the most menacing forms of psych with hints of doom and metal, scratching the Sabbath/Sleep/Mammatus itch roiling under the skin. Gardner’s guitars have never sounded so boiled in blood, a hard turn away from the vibraphone vibrancy of last year’s On The Whole Universe In All Directions. The band have spent their time in the pastures and paths, now it’s time to light some fires in a world gone mad.

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