The Appleseed Cast/Muscle Worship/The Ground is Lava

The Appleseed Cast, a post-rock outfit that’s been around for 14 years now, tries something a bit different on Illumination Ritual, its forthcoming studio album. The band wrote the lyrics between the hours of midnight and 4 a.m. during a three-night lyric-writing binge. Given the fact that the band’s songs tend to drone and take on a hypnotic quality with guitar riffs that build slowly, the approach somehow seems fitting. Illumination Ritual’s first single, “Great Lake Derelict,” features layers of guitars and shows off the band’s new line-up (it recently added Taylor Holenbeck on guitar and Nathan Wilder on drums). The lazy vocals that emerge in the song’s second half sound like the stuff of a blurry late night writing jam session. Expect something similar from the live show. (Jeff Niesel)