Raw Power

Working with Barresi, Barber says, "every day was fucking magical. If you have good songs, he's gonna make them sound fucking awesome." Above all, he pushed for truth in the sound, and his influence is noticeable on Into Abaddon. Where before, Barber's vocals were often mired in reverb, and the guitars bathed in artificial distortion, here they're crisper. But rather than sound too clean, the song's pure tones come through more urgently, as a result sounding even more immediate, and heavier. "You can hide behind a lot of shit when you're making music," Barber says, "but his fucking approach is exactly how music should be made."

Everything about the band is getting refined to its essence. Gone are the pentagrams of previous live shows; now the group plays in front of a mystical tapestry by an artist friend. Their look is classic getting-high-in-the-parking-lot chic, all long, curly hair and the occasional flash of flannel. Their logo has become more twisted, the new album artwork a colorful, psychedelic rendition of a pyramid that is harder to immediately parse. And the songs themselves have expanded a little — Into Abbadon boasts only eight tracks. But they're still driven by Barber's Lemmy-esque, gruff wail and the driving, stop-start drumming of Batiste, who, improbably, is also the band's chief songwriter.

Lest they seem drifting off into lands of dungeons and dragons, their latest video, for "Narcotic Sea," reassures that they're still just a bunch of rockin' party-time dudes. Beginning outside a friend's warehouse, the video follows the bandmates ridin' hogs, bangin' their heads, takin' a walk on some mystical cliffs, hangin' out on a beach. "It's very fucking us as a band — rocking, partying, and then just having fun," Barber says. "It's totally silly and completely fucking who we are."