Eclectic, journey-like effort regarded as highly influential within the modern progressive metal scene.© TiVo

Talk about original -- this band has something for just about everyone. They can do quiet, brooding acoustics like "Bankrupt on Selling," dark and pounding thrashers like "Cowboy Dan," funky jump-around emo like "Jesus Christ Was an Only Child" -- just about anything. Throughout the whole album is a white-trash feeling and a sort of down-to-earth analysis of the state of the world, without sounding pretentious. Give this album a listen and you can be sure that you will be singing the rambling, catchy, almost whiny vocals in no time. If you dig indie rock at its very best, go pick this album up.© Blake Butler /TiVo

There isn't exactly a plethora of metal bands in the early 21st century that are eager to mix indie rock sounds into their noise, which makes the Savannah, GA-based quartet Baroness stand out from the overcrowded metallic pack. On their first-ever full-length release (and first for the Relapse label), 2007's The Red Album, the riffs are quite reminiscent of guitar-driven, post-hardcore bands out of the mid-'90s (a style which would later serve as the basis for emo bands several years later), while singer/guitarist John Baizley only knows one way to vocalize: holler, holler, holler. Think a more metallic Fugazi or Sunny Day Real Estate, and you're not far off from the brand of rock & roll that Baroness specializes in, as evidenced by such standouts as "The Birthing" and "Wanderlust." The Red Album shows that Baroness is one of a select number of acts that manage to be both mathematical and melodic at the same time.© Greg Prato /TiVo

With few notable exceptions, it's rare that a live album would provide suitable enough introductions for new listeners and unsuspecting fans. That said, England's Haken prove the exception to the rule on L1ve. They are all arguably better served by this four-disc audio/video package than by any -- or all -- of their four previous studio albums. This set was captured in the Netherlands in April of 2017 during Haken's X tour celebrating their tenth anniversary. Two audio discs contain the entire gig, while the accompanying DVDs adds four additional performances from the previous year's "Prog Power 16" festival gig. While the massive fold-out package is somewhat unwieldy, the music proves anything but. Haken delivers inspired reads of tunes from 2013's The Mountain and 2015's Affinity with a couple of rather lengthy surprises. Disc one kicks off with the latter's title track in medley with the anthemic "Initiate." The basic formula that follows alternates its tracks with selections from the former, all performed with inspiration and in pristine, detailed, audio clarity. The live audio was mixed by Jerry Guidroz (Winery Dogs, Tiles); it allows listeners to discern the proper place of each instrument. After the rave-up opening jam, Haken ratchet down the intensity (somewhat) with "In Memoriam" from The Mountain. While the relative subtlety is short-lived -- the middle section heats up and explodes -- it too serves as an intro to the massive "1985," whose soaring instruments underscore glorious choral voices in the refrain and bridge. "Red Giant" is delivered with a slower, even sinister tension only hinted at in the studio version. The first disc concludes with the 23-minute "Aquamedley" that seamlessly runs through parts of all seven tracks from 2010's Aquarius. Disc two commences with three cuts from the Mountain. "As Death Embraces" -- a mournful ballad with vocalist Ross Jennings offering his sweetest, most forlorn tenor -- segues into "Atlas Stone" where edgy jazz rock tropes emerge as Jennings' near-scatting engages in interplay with Richard Henshall's guitar and keyboard wizardy. "Cockroach King" weds King Crimson-esque prog rock and dissonance to Opethian metal and angular, modal, hard rock. "The Architect" is even longer than its studio version and, with its labyrinth of instrumental twists and turns, delivers a larger reward. It's doubly paranoid and imposing, with cacophonous instrumentation giving way to cinematic drama via crunchy metal. Here too, Haken surprise their audience with a soaring, climactic 23-minute reading of Visions' title track. As for the video element, it sounds great and looks that way for the most part. That said, it could have used more intimate camera work -- some of the footage was shot too far away to be fully appreciated. Given its four startling bonus tracks, however, this is a minor complaint. L1ve serves not only as a killer intro to Haken, but also as the definitive live album for legacy fans.© Thom Jurek /TiVo

King cranked out this solid, if typical, album for the Stax label after the success of Born Under a Bad Sign. With Booker T. drummer Al Jackson producing, the set includes such staples as "You Threw Your Love on Me Too Strong," "Wrapped up in Love Again," and a powerful version of Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor." For fans of King's guitar work, the inclusion of the instrumental workouts on "You Don't Love Me" and "Drowning on Dry Land" are a special bonus. Not an essential Albert King album, but one of his good ones.© Cub Koda /TiVo

Tad's last fart, 1995's Infrared Riding Hood, improbably saw the Seattle grunge stalwarts scoring their second major label contract, but then failing yet again to seize the opportunity to follow in the platinum workboots of the genre's "big four" (Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam). Mind you, it wasn't for lack of trying, since the new material reflected a similar tack as its 1993 predecessor, Inhaler, in attempting to wipe some blood and gristle off the band's vicious sonic template. But while these more pronounced contrasts between light and dark actually did work out on a few cuts (namely "Bullhorn" and "Bludge"), many others (such as "Ictus," "Red Eye Angel," and "Dementia") sounded forced and unconvincing -- as well as disturbingly derivative of Irish alt-metallers Therapy? Another grouping slowed down the tempo with varying results: "Thistle Suit" merely repeated the game but unfulfilling hybridization cited above, while the exceptionally sludgy "Emotional Cockroach" delivered a secondhand Melvins imitation, but the misleadingly named "Weakling" nearly got the balance right. Then Tad really overstayed their welcome by jamming about four songs too many toward the end of Infrared Riding Hood -- an all too typical fallacy of the CD era. And all these efforts were ultimately for naught, since Tad wound up rudely dropped by EastWest and broke up soon after this release, their caustic grunge stylings having proved far too unsavory for the flannel-toting mainstream to stomach.© Eduardo Rivadavia /TiVo

Drew Grow is a singer and lyricist not afraid of the grand gesture or playing to the last row of the balcony, which is why he's a frontman. He's also not worried about sounding grandiose or a bit absurd; he's an indie rocker with the larger-than-life vibe of an arena rock star, even if the arenas aren't ready for him. Grow has a cult following for his work with the bands Modern Kin and Drew Grow and the Pastors' Wives, but he's found a bigger stage to show off his swagger on the debut album from Slang, 2022's Cockroach in a Ghost Town. Grow co-founded Slang with Janet Weiss, the celebrated drummer who has worked with Sleater-Kinney, Quasi, and Wild Flag, and with Anita Lee Elliot (formerly of Viva Voce) on lead guitar and Kathy Foster (of the Thermals and Roseblood) on bass, he's part of what could reasonably called a Pacific Northwest indie supergroup. While the buzzy guitars, angular but pop-infused melodies, layers of electronic seasoning, and deliberate rhythms don't sound out of character for Weiss or Foster, it's the sheer brio of Grow's vocals that puts him at center stage on this album, and he's a good ringmaster for this particular rock & roll circus. He delivers larger-than-life pomp on "Wilder," deep echoey cool on "King Gunn," shows off his high notes on the Bowie-esque "Wrong Wrong Wrong," and makes like he's the star of his own little blockbuster on the title track. Grow is lucky that his bandmates can deliver music strong and distinctive enough to support his ambitions, especially the clean, clear harmony vocals, the cinematic keyboard fills, and Weiss' big, decisive drumming. (They also get some help from guest stars Stephen Malkmus, Mary Timony, and Sam Coomes, the latter two already familiar with Weiss from their other projects together.) Hopefully Slang's next album will give Grow's bandmates a bit more room to shine, but Cockroach in a Ghost Town reveals this group have talent and ideas to spare, and this is indie rock that makes the most of its eccentricities.© Mark Deming /TiVo