War Dream, the second album from Baltimore's Crazy Dreams Band, is saturated with heaviness, psychedelia, pomp and grit, and noticeably lacking any nostalgia hang-ups. This rock music is refractory and satisfyingly off; put on a slide, manipulated and projected on a screen, or felt through a chain-link fence. Lost love, genocide and forgotten histories collide with raw-dog vocal thundering, slippe ry bass frequencies, adventurous percussion and seductive guitar ripples. Opener "Feels So Good" is a swirling dirge that could be a half-figured-out version of "Carouselambra"; "Awkward for Everyone" showcases recent addition Jorge Martins of Lisbon duo Fish & Sheep playing what sounds like a deflating blow-up Les Paul copy that actually has strings--you've got to hear the killer solo! The side-long "Life Is the Knife" is like a secret ritual from an unreleased Billy Jack sequel where he went back to Vietnam and built a temple that bled the purest opium. Here, Jake Freeman's adventurous sub-frequencies and Nick Becker's saucy space wanderings shine on to break the dawn in half. War Dream was recorded in three days at Beat Babies in Woodstock, MD, by Chris Freeland (OXES, Frenemies, Long Live Death, Baltimore Rowdies Collective) with heaping platefuls of assistance from his brother Mickey (Bow 'n' Arrow, Height with Friends) and a cat that looked like a dirty snowman.