4 out of 5

Label: Holidays for Quince Records

Produced By: Nick Petersen (engineered and mixed)

Resting somewhere between the hazy grooves of Black Mountain and the overkill of Wolfmother there’s Caltrop, taking the 70s Sabbath vibe and letting it bubble up through an indie post-rock slurry…  Enough comparisons?  Caltrop have a pleasingly polished looseness to their sound – with a two guitar, bass and drums setup, the band can switch between straight ahead rockers (opener ‘Birdsong’) to more sprawling, amped up blasts (‘Ancient’) to slumbering slow builds (7+ minute centerpiece ‘Perihelion’) without it feeling like anyone has skipped a beat, and without the production polish of either of the bands mentioned above.  You get the feeling that Caltrop is warts and all, it’s just that they’re so comfortable with what they’re playing, it ends up sounding pretty damn good anyway.

One of the interesting things about the group is also something of a soft spot on the album, though: that they don’t feel the need to go for broke or impress on any given song.  While tracks like ‘Ancient’ and the penultimate ‘Blessed’ – whose badass breakdown sold me on the album when my ears were on the fence – show that the group has the rock chops, wandering tracks like ‘Light Does Not Get Old’ and the expansive ‘Perihelion’… don’t really go any where.  Especially in the latter example, it’s not even an intended (to my ears) experimentation with build and release dynamics – the track has some bursts of noise, but it’s not enough of a juxtaposition with the druggy strumming that’s been playing to really make it worthwhile.  The same is true for vocal-less closer ‘Zelma’ which fades in and fades out before you realize you just heard the last track.

Lyrically, I’m not completely sold yet, but there’s definite promise here.  The topic seems to be a general hunt for meaning, and the lyrics, fittingly, are somewhat open in their examination of that topic.  But they’re sung with definite earnestness, which enhances one’s ability to bob your head to them, and the tracks where we get some backup vocals just make your soul melt with classic rock goodness.  Vocal harmonies (even if they’re off key harmonies) are a component missing in a lot of current hard rock or metal.

But the positives obviously far outweigh the negatives.  I admit I got stuck on those lulls for a while, until I let the disc spin and realized how pleased I was with every other moment…  If you dig the 70s metal revival sound but find it a bit too flashy for your tastes, Caltrop’s lo-fi take on the genre might be what you’re looking for.