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For the first few seconds of the opening “Into the Open,” this is Erika Wennerstrom’s album–pretty piano chords, a melancholy feeling and a voice that eerily echoes the line “things are coming into focus!” Eventually her heavy, punishing electric-guitar power chords catch up, as does the Heartless Bastards’ hamhanded, sludgy, sub-Iggy and the Stooges punk rock, and some of the otherworldly qualities of her voice drain out of the song. But while this Dayton, Ohio trio’s musical vision is a little flat, compared to Wennerstrom’s immense vocal talent, it’s perfect for melodic, Nirvana-style epics like “Valley of Debris.” Remember that it took Aretha Franklin and Janis Joplin years to find the right styles and backup bands.
