We Are the Asteroid, Suckling (record release), Tia Carrera

A triumvirate of top-tier heavy riffers under one roof: zero-gravity brain-scrapers We Are the Astroid, instrumental stoner voyagers Tia Carrera, and the mesmeric Suckling, christening a must hear full-length debut. “This is me trying to raise the dead… in my head,” expurges Suckling vocalist/organist Ezra Reynolds, to open the emotive and exploratory 11-song platter where Brett Bradford’s fierce Stratocaster resounds like a hungry beast stalking around the intestine rumbling bass grooves of Win Wallace. The cinematic strain of noise rock and post-punk laid out on Suckling’s 2018 EP now enfolds a bounty of surprising jazz/soul horn arrangements and compositions that lean progressive and classical. Don’t miss the lively “Mean A Nine,” uniting Bradford with his Scratch Acid bandmate Rey Washam for the first time since 1986. —1292031