Unloco

Unloco is a heavy-metal group formed in Austin (Texas) by guitarist Brian Arthur, singer Joey Duenas, drummer Peter Navarrete and bassist Victor Escareno. Healing (Maverick, 2001) introduced a loud, bleak, groove-oriented sludge enhanced with dramatic vocals and mellow, tension-filled passages, like a cross between White Zombie and Korn. Crisp, rousing riffs and eventful dynamics highlight Useless, Naive, Nothing, and Farside tops that scheme with a (relatively) catchy melody.

Equally successful in the touching and quirky power-ballad Face Down and in the magniloquent death-metal rant Clean, in the electrifying rap Panic and in the emphatic prog-metal of Less Of, Unloco redefine heavy-metal as a more rational genre after the excesses of the 1990s.