Letters from the Dead

While hardcore fans quibble about the switch from vocalist Kevin Matisyn to Dan Chandler on Evans Blues 2009’s self-titled LP, the band sounds as doomy, dystopian and cathartically powerful as ever on Letters from the Dead. Led by the thunderous “iGod,” the album blends soaring melodicism (“Just Once”) with dark, brooding breakdowns (“Invisible Catastrophe”) and fits of pure anger (“End of Me”) for a set that never quite feels good but isn’t always supposed to: As Chandler puts it on the second track, “Not feeling like myself/Too comfortable with hate”.