Compare Iowa [Translucent Green Vinyl]

After a couple years of relentless touring in support of their self-titled breakthrough album, regrouped to record , an ode to their home state that consolidates and punctuates everything that had garnered the band its cultish following. The monstrous guitar crunch, the concrete-dense rhythmic foundation, the frenzied singing, and the overall madcap fashion of it all -- 's trademark sound is very much at the forefront of this dark, dark album and is presented in epic form on the extended, album-closing title track, which brings to mind -type terrors. Though not quite as commercially viable as the more straightforward album, is a more interesting listen, one that envelopes you in its American Gothic shadow and leaves you feeling unsettled afterward. It's really all you could ask for in a album, and then some -- perhaps some more than you'd like, in fact, if you're not part of the cult. ~ Jason Birchmeier