Swedish avant-metal dance band
Diablo Swing Orchestra
's third full-length outing, the dense and typically diabolical
No. 3: Pandora's Pinata
, opens with a sinister bayou boogie ("Voodoo Mon Amour") and closes with a lush symphonic epic ("Justice for Saint Mary"). While that may sound disparate in print, it makes perfect sense when distilled through a pair of speakers, as
, who sound exactly as their name implies, has the ability to bind nearly any genre to its will, and while less adventurous hard rock fans may scoff at the very notion of combining the tried and true, rib-cage crunch of metal with salsa ("Guerrilla Laments"), jazz ("Honey Trap Aftermath"), and Middle Eastern music ("Mass Rapture"), those with an ear for the exotic will find themselves suitably bloody and bruised, and eagerly awaiting the next adventure. ~ James Christopher Monger