Now Playing: Stinking Lizaveta
Pop quiz: Identify a psych-tinged instrumental prog-metal trio named after a Dostoyevsky character. We know, we know—there are so many to choose from. But if you’re anything like us, the first such group that springs to mind is Philadelphia’s Stinking Lizaveta, which derives its moniker from Crime and Punishment. To us, the music of the veteran outfit—consisting of brothers Yanni (guitar) and Alexi (bass) Papadopoulos, and drummer Cheshire Augusta—doesn’t conjure the brooding gloom you might expect, so much as a sinister sort of glee. We’ve always admired the Stinking ones’ dogged DIY determination (write, record, release, tour—repeat), perfected over their 15 years together, and they seem to be only improving with age. The band’s sixth full-length, Sacrifice and Bliss—just out on At a Loss—is a scorcher. Here’s an exemplary track, which sounds to us like some unholy amalgam of the Jesus Lizard and the Allman Brothers (which, in this case at least, is a very good thing).
