By now, the story should be pretty familiar: A bunch of guys try to hold on to the glories of their earlier days by continuing to push the same sound over and over, with different names and different configurations of basically the same band. It's a convenient criticism. But one that doesn't quite work in the case of Black Taj. The reason? These former members of Polvo and Idyll Swords are still pretty damn good.

On the group's second album, they still sound a bit more like Polvo than it does the Eastern-tinged Swords. (Although "Damascus" is a nod in title and sound to the softer side of things.) The grooving burn of "Spacewash" and the classic rock throwback "Only for a Moment" are the order of the day. No matter how familiar the twinned guitar pyrotechnics of Polvo and other math-y mid-'90s indie staples story is, hearing it enacted once again is still a treat.