The newest album from this long-running San Francisco outfit is easily one of the best hard rock/metal releases of the year.  Principal Hammer John Cobbett pulls together another new lineup of the band, which features new members Joe Hutton on vocals and Leila Abdul-Rauf on guitar/vocals, and releases another stunning album that will hopefully break the band to a deservedly bigger audience.

Once again, the band has reinvented itself, this time jettisoning the folk for a leaner, epic, and hard sound. In fact, many of the songs share a certain dynamic quality that recalls Queen at the height of their powers. This is not to say they are copying anybody, it’s just that these are some of the most adventurous and melodic hard rock songs you’ll hear all year. Anything can go, and usually does on this album. You get everything you could possibly want on this disc: catchy riffs, memorable choruses, and bravura performances from all involved.

Picking out highlights is kind of tough because all the songs are fairly memorable in their own right. For instance, “The Grain” features a chorus that will be stuck in your head for days, while “The Day The City Died” is a driving number bolstered by the soaring vocals of Hutton and some killer lead guitar work from Cobbett and Abdul-Rauf. “Summer Tears” is a piano driven power ballad that would make Freddy Mercury, well, shed a tear, and “Staring (The 31st Floor)” lays down a doomier groove. They finish it off with the epic closer “Going Somewhere.”

This is quite simply one excellent album, one that is sure to make an appearance on many “best of” lists at the year. I know it will be on mine. Don’t sleep on this, go out and get it right now.

(Metal Blade Records, 5737 Kanan Road #143, Agoura Hills, CA 91301)