Shreveport, Louisiana is a good ways north and west of the fabled New Orleans, and likewise, Ketea offer a sound north and west of fabled Nola acts like EyeHateGod, Suplecs, Mystick Krewe of Clearlight and Crowbar. Their emphasis, both musically and vocally, is on dynamics – each of the six songs on their Doom Dealer/The Church Within debut, Alpha, features finely honed changes that come in so hard they’ll crack your sheetrock and go out so smooth they’ll caulk it back up. Good for outdoor listening, I suppose.

Tonally similar to Zoroaster‘s Dog Magic and mixed so the thick, hairy (which would have to be the next step up from fuzzy, right?) guitars and bass are primary considerations when listening, the sample-laden Alpha demonstrates its creators’ thoughtfulness in a variety of ways apart from the ease of transitions. All six tracks begin with the same letter as the album title, for example, and the songs are arranged so that “A Bomb a Nation,” the longest of the bunch, comes at the end of the vinyl’s side A. These may be small touches, but they show Ketea are putting real thought into their work, they’re passionate about it, where many bands just record songs, throw them together and call it a record.

What Alpha does exceedingly well is pull the listener into it and shove them out again. The trio – guitarist/vocalist Emily, bassist/vocalist Lonnie and drummer Trey – immediately set about modal deconstruction with opener “Alchemystery,” which begins with Acid King-style (if less confident) clean vocals from Emily before smashing Lonnie‘s screams into the eardrum at 6:12. The interlude following the solo at 4:29 that leads into that segment helps set the range and overall mood of the album.

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