Over the course of In Tongues' 10 tracks, I had to keep checking to make sure my CD player to make sure it hadn't somehow transformed into an 8-track. The riff-heavy tunes, the double-tracked vocals, the pot-haze guitar crunch, even H.P. Lovecraft-inspired lyrics—I sincerely believe that Drunk Horse has access to a time machine, and that the dial is stuck on 1976. Probably something to do with world domination, forcing the Earth's denizens to grow mullets and huge 'staches, drive Camaros, and drink Milwaukee's Best.

Roaring out of the gates with the galloping beat of "Strange Transgressors," with guest Josh Smith adding slide guitar, the band make clear what is in their record collection, nodding to Blue Oyster Cult and Thin Lizzy with belligerent anachronism. The result never equals the best of its forebears, but it is a blissfully swaggering 40 minutes, wholly idea-free, which gives your head the option of banging unencumbered. The highlight is "Nice Hooves," a strutting litany of hard-luck tales that nails the attitude (and attitude is what this is all about) just right. I'm sure it works beautifully live, played from behind chicken-wire while passing around a bottle of Southern Comfort.