Sabbath Crow

If ever a title told you what to expect, Carrion Highway Weird Sun is it: images of long trails through bog-locked woods, a hellish sun beating down, animal corpses everywhere, and ... what might that gap-toothed hillbilly up ahead want? What he gets is a short, sweet frenzy of feverish swamp metal, gut-punch rhythms, distortion-choked guitar, and J. Bybee's impossibly guttural growl. Indeed, the cowboy-behatted frontman almost casually hogs the spotlight, whether delivering country-fuzz riffery on "Jesus in the Waiting Room," trading raunchy blues licks with guest mouth-harpist Walter Daniels on "Meanwhile, Back at the Mule Shack," or splattering psychedelic mud on the title cut. He reaches a demented apex on "Let the Vultures Be My Grave," all knife-edge boogie thrash and the ranting of an unhinged mind. Bassist Kristin Bybee and drummer Jeff Chavez hold down the bottom with surprising grace, but the LP is unequivocally the axeman's show.