Is it proggy stoner rock? Doomy punk? Anthrax playing Zappa? Sure.

This D.C. band doesn't bother itself too much with genre labels, and it tends to identify with each and every one of its disparate influences. The driving force is the intensity of the writing and the performance. Not one single note is played halfway.

Caustic Casanova God How I Envy the Deaf (Magnetic Eye)

It is my pleasure to listen to any number of artists who embody the "nobody else sounds like this" ethos. Caustic Casanova sounds like a thousand different bands at different times, and that sound morphing ability is what makes these folks stand apart. Well, that and the fact that stuff is so, so good.

One easy example: "If Your Brain is Properly Oiled." The first minute-plus is dedicated to one of the greatest Tony Iommi riffs that he never wrote. But instead of going full-on Sabbath, the riff plays out over a kinetic drum line (including a significant reliance on wood blocks). The vocals, which are both the weakest and most interesting thing about the band, shout and wail as needed. In the end, the riff destroys everything--as is only right. But the journey is thrilling.

Perhaps the only other band out there attempting to do so much is King Gizzard and the Wizard Lizard. Those Aussies attack prog from an entirely different point of view, but the adventurous spirit is in the same vein. Caustic Casanova has been threatening this sort of brilliance for some time. Now the prophecy is fulfilled. Mind melting.

Jon Worley