Photo by Veronica Henderson

Artist: Steel Wool, the four-piece of guitarist and vocalist Sean Lissner, bassist and screamer Jaden Amjadi, guitarist Sam Schlesinger, and drummer Evan Landi

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Buzz: “Fading”, the opening track off Steel Wool’s eponymous debut EP, glides into the atmosphere under a bluff of dream-pop before something remarkable happens. First, Sean Lissner’s separates the clouds from the clear blue sky using a cherubic croon rarely heard in today’s shoegaze swirls. Then, bassist Jaden Amjadi tears it all apart through a choral screamo bout. On paper, none of this should work, but on the other hand, thank god the Los Angeles band are daring to try something singular, unlike many of their peers who are merely retreading the genre’s past to diminishing rewards.

The listen only gets more abstract from there. “Another Sunday” is the Smiths through a shitgaze filter while “Eyes Closed” pairs Lissner’s handsome vocals over a lo-fi loop of corrosive pop and electronic drums. “Heaven or La Brea” and “Tired Movements” are reminders that prestige-baiting indie rock built around a foundation of sentimentality and melodic grandeur can still impress with the right approach when it doesn’t immediately blend to beige. “Please stop singing / You’re out of time,” Lissner sings in the latter listen’s final moments before a stormy cast of rock aggression whelms in dramatic fashion. That the whole of the five songs you hear leaves so much uncertainty as to where Steel Wool will go after such a promising entry point couldn’t make that request any more wrong.

Sound: A singer-songwriter, punk bassist, indie-pop guitarist, and metalhead drummer form a band…

Recommended: “Fading”, “Eyes Closed”, and “Heaven or La Brea” from their newly-released self-titled debut EP

Steel Wool’s Steel Wool is available now on Bug Body.