Take Shelter by Lavinia

Following their harrowing 2010 debut EP "There Is Light Between Us", Lavinia returns with their follow-up 7", "Take Shelter". Once again featuring Nate Shumaker (ex-Eksi Ekso, On Fire) on guitar and vocals and Alex Mihm (Eksi Ekso) on drums, this time Philip Jamieson (Caspian) moves to guitar instead of bass, and John Helmig (formerly of Everdown, Crown Vict) plays bass.

The two new songs push even further into the bleak territory explored on the debut, with a heavier backdrop this time around. The band starts things out with the beautifully haunting "New Blood", as the shimmering guitars gradually ascend into crunchier, nastier terrain before subsiding to allow space for Shumaker's refrained vocal passages, then culminating in the heaviest sound the band has ever achieved. Then you're greeted with the sorrow of "Halo", which builds up at a dreamy pace before it chugs and crushes like a forest of falling and colliding trees, a driving close-out to the 7".