Pelican/Coliseum/Hellmouth

With their latest album, Pelican drive home the point that they’re fully in charge of this vehicle. The music goes where they want it to — often toward dark, unseemly corners of instrumental metal. And that’s all for the best. Straddling the line between full-on metal and a more ambient post-rock mentality, Pelican has been able to produce some of the more thought-provoking music on the heavy side of things. And to the uninitiated, Pelican’s brand of music comes off a bit more accessible than post-rock contemporaries like Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky. Take “Deny the Absolute,” for instance, which weaves in and among hard-hitting chord progressions and peaks, all while dipping down low to tag the recesses of the bassline. (Sandy)