Dove Hunter's "Black Cloud Erupt Us"

Damn, has it really been six years since the debut Dove Hunter release? Well, five and a half, at least. But now these vets of little-and-Big-D band wars are back with a sophomore CD, and it's a corker: imagine Physical Graffiti if Led Zep had cut their teeth at the Argo Club and Fry Street Fair.

Since recording The Southern Unknown, Dove Hunter has added ex-Jet Screamer axe-slinger Will Kapinos, who gigs solo as one-man bent-blues band Dim Locator. Kapinos weaves his slashing slide and stinging single-string lines (like the lysergic fuzz ride on "I Can Be More") seamlessly with ex-Mandarin frontman Jayson Wortham's inventive fretwork to create one of the hottest twin-guitar tandems you're likely to hear today. They're not flashy or showy; rather, they make their crystalline-toned axes chime and ring, but with enough blues grit and occasional dissonance to put one in mind of vintage Page at his multitracked best.

Similarly, Wortham's vocalismo recalls R. Plant in a fever dream (minus the scream; a good thing) -- dig "This Creek Will Rise" or "One Foot On the Horizon" for proof positive -- and the whole thing is made even more impactful by the rock-solid engine room (heard to best advantage on "Don't Hurt Myself" and the climactic "No Shelter"), in which Doosu vet Chad DeAtley's bass rumbles like a subterranean dynamo and Quincy Holloway brings the Bonham-esque crash 'n' thump in the manner one would expect from the only muso in dub juggernaut Sub Oslo that never stops playing.

With Black Cloud Erupt Us, Dove Hunter demonstrates that there's still vitality left in guitar-based, unhyphenated rock. And I'll bet this stuff sounds even better live, where the players' capacity for invention allows them to reshape the material in the moment.

ADDENDUM: Will Kapinos informs me that I misattributed the guitar solo in "I Can Be More" to him, rather than Jayson Wortham, who played it. Mea culpa.