Subterranean Masquerade

Chalk up another point for avant-garde with the release of Subterranean Masquerade’s official debut. Temporary Psychotic State is unsurprisingly odd, the product of an art metal super-group of sorts, sliding effortlessly between jazz, folk and metal (since when have acoustic guitars and violin sounded so damn heavy?). Moving through quiet acoustics and clean vocals then in and out of amplification and death-y growls, these songs have a live feel — partly arrangement and part production — but that doesn’t in any way detract from their appeal. The biggest complaint about Temporary Psychotic State? Just that it’s a little too temporary, an ephemeral two tracks in 17 minutes, and merely a teaser for the continuation of the concept.