As Horseback, North Carolina’s Jenks Miller originally walked an experimental black metal path. Now he’s wandered so far into the woods he’s left headbanging behind. On sixth full-length Dead Ringers, Miller indulges his appetite for electronics and repetition alongside psychedelic excursions. The motorik beat driving “Shape of the One Thing,” sedate vocals of “Lion Killer,” and dub production tricks of “A Bolt From Blue” replace power chords alongside his knack for memorable melody and six-string frippery. The wandering “In Another Time, in and out of Form” and “Descended From the Crown” recall old glories.

***.5

This article appears in August 19 • 2016.

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Michael Toland started writing about music in 1988 on the Gulf Coast, moved to Austin in early 1991, and has inflicted bylines upon the corporeal and digital pages of Pop Culture Press, The Big Takeover, Blurt, Amplifier, Austin.citysearch, the Austin American Statesman, Goldmine, Sleazegrinder, Rock & Roll Globe, High Bias, FHT Music Notes, and, since 2011, The Austin Chronicle.