Crypt Trip

Name your band Crypt Trip, and people will think you're as heavy and blackened as Black Sabbath. The cue for this San Marcos trio, however, lies in the title of its third album. Haze County speaks to open fields seen through a fog of marijuana smoke instead of a dark sepulchre mired in depression and death. Leader Ryan Lee burns up his fretboard like the bastard son of Joe Walsh and Joe Maphis while singing in a mellifluous, almost gentle voice more aligned to folk than power rock. Sam Bryant's bass often harmonizes with the frontman's instrument, giving the arrangements more depth than three pieces would be expected to produce. That puts weight behind rockers like "16 Ounce Blues," but it really turbocharges multipart proto-proggers like "To Be Whole." The writing is little more than solid, but Crypt Trip's deft attack gives the tracks wings.