Caltrop

North Carolina outfit Caltrop ranks among the rare heavy acts whose music genuinely channels Black Sabbath rather than merely name-checking the band as stoner-rock shorthand. The Chapel Hill quartet came together in 2005, with Sam Taylor on guitar and vocals, Murat Dirlik on bass and vocals, Adam Nolton on guitar, and John Crouch behind the drums. Thick, heavily fuzzed riffs dominate most of their material, placing the group at an unexpected crossroads between Sabbath and the Allman Brothers Band and yielding detuned psychedelic dirges colored by soulful Southern blues and rock phrasing. Their extended, post-metal compositional approach also echoes outfits such as Baroness and Earth, revealing the core of their sound. The band issued a self-released demo titled Caltrop in 2006, then delivered its first proper album, World Class, through Holidays for Quince in 2008.