San Francisco's
Lost Goat has graduated from
Rush-like prog to pure metallic rock on the band's third album,
The Dirty Ones, recorded by
the Fucking Champs'
Tim Green. With bassist Erica Stoltz's emotional and sometimes angry blues vocals, the band sounds reminiscent of mid-'90s acts like
L7 and
7 Year Bitch, but Eric Peterson's intense and complex guitar playing casts the group as a younger, less heavy -- albeit more serious -- cousin to
the Fucking Champs. On "Seattle Shakedown,"
Lost Goat turns
Melvins-style sludge rock into clean, surprisingly political metal. "Rat Masters of the Icky Path" could do without
the Smashing Pumpkins' "rats in a cage" analogy, but the
Iron Maiden guitar wizardry is pretty amazing. The most original track on the record is the instrumental desert rock piece, "The Drifter," which is complemented curiously by instrumental covers of
Leadbelly's "Line 'Em" and
Buffy Sainte-Marie's "Cod'ine."
Lost Goat still sounds as if the band hasn't entirely figured out its own sound, but the group is definitely pointed in the right direction. ~ Charles Spano