Snowing Sun

Snowing Sun begins with a full-on assault of tweaked-out guitars and thrashing drums, as if to prepare listeners for the most extreme and warn the weak to turn back. The debut album from Bellini follows through on its promise too, with angular math metal on "Medusa" and the swirling, insane rant of off-kilter riffs and vocals on "Furious." Risen from the ashes of drummer Damon Che's groundbreaking Don Caballero, Bellini makes a bid to be the Minutemen of the 2000s — a Minutemen that has lived to see Slint. Agostino Tilotta provides nervy guitars, the band rearranges conventional song structures, and the entire record maintains a blistering pace. On top of that are vocals that match D. Boon's screed with the sexiness of Boss Hog. Giovanna Cacciola, the singer from Uzeda, sounds like X's Exene Cervenka one minute ("Conflict Between the Fire and Wet Wood") and like some sleepy European chanteuse the next ("On the Road to Roscoe Lee"). The out-of-control guitars, Matthew Taylor's thick bass, and the octopus drumming might drive the songs on Snowing Sun, but Cacciola's voice — one of the most interesting to grace punk rock in this new century — carries them. And in the end, it is Cacciola that makes Bellini so relevant and more accessible than Don Caballero. Instead of being a band of confounding and confusing rock geniuses, Bellini proves that rock can still sound as vicious, vital, and fresh as Los Angeles punk did in the late '70s and early '80s.