Abra Kadavar

The members of the Berlin power trio Kadavar know too well that there’s only so much late-'60s and early-'70s psychedelic proto-metal to be mined from vinyl crates and reissue catalogs. And after hunting down all that’s out there, the next best thing is to (re)create your own version. Kadavar does this with unapologetically retro attention to detail—even the MP3s of its 2012 eponymous debut album resonated with audible analog tape hiss. “Come Back to Life” kickstarts the time machine of Kadavar's 2013 sophomore album, Abra Kadavar, with a driving hard rock sound that’s trimmed in all the period-correct tones of its previous recordings. But what immediately stands out with this album is an even better sense of songwriting and arranging. Sounding like early Black Sabbath by way of Dust’s 1972 album Hard Attack, “Doomsday Machine” bursts with the musical maturity and performing confidence of a band that's paid its dues on stages throughout the world. The space-trucking title track finds the band not just reinterpreting proto-metal’s pioneers; Kadavar has now joined their ranks.