Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats

Fronted by guitarist, vocalist, and visionary Kevin A. Starrs, Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats are a band whose proto-metal excursions exhibit all the creeping menace of early Black Sabbath while adding a healthy dose of melody and just enough heady psychedelia around the edges to make it weird. Their early recordings were made on the cheap, but the lack of fidelity couldn't disguise the group's strengths. Once they had a label backing them, they still went for a lo-fi approach, and records like 2013's Mind Control came across like dusty artifacts saved from the dustbin by chance. As the band's profile grew, their albums became more assured and powerful -- 2018's Wasteland sounded arena-sized compared to early work -- and by the time of 2024's Nell' Ora Blu, they had the imagination and skill to concoct an almost metal-free (and convincing) soundtrack to an imaginary Italian film from the 1970s.