Harmonicraft

This is the third album by the Miami four-piece. Volcom Entertainment released it in 2012; the band produced it themselves, Kurt Ballou of Converge mixed it and Alan Douches mastered it, with cover art by Santos. Steve Brooks and Andrew Elstner share the two guitars and the singing, Jonathan Nunez plays bass and synthesizer and also recorded the album, and Rick Smith drums. The raw material -- thick, down-tuned guitar -- is sludge metal, but what sits on top is a clear vocal melody much closer to power pop, and that combination is what the band is for. The songs are shorter and more numerous than on the two records before it: thirteen of them in under forty minutes. The first half runs without a break through two-minute songs, from "Letting Go" into "Kicking" and "Walk It Off", while the second slows down and lets the notes ring on "Solitary Traveler" and the title track. Stereogum placed it thirtieth on its fifty best albums of 2012.