Verdigris [Vinyl]

NYC volume dealers Mirror Queen return with the dazzling new album, ''Verdigris,'' a masterclass of riff-driven melodic hard rock. Combining edgy, street-level rock n roll with more cerebral elements of poetry and literature, Mirror Queen rides hard and loud, kicking out the jams at every opportunity. Here the songs are expansive and lush in their textures, with ethereal songwriting full of crossing guitar lines and an insistent, demanding rhythmic throb. Featuring additional guitars from Swans' six-stringer Norman Westberg, ''Verdigris'' is a rock monolith, all dark delight and sinister pleasure, that demands headbanging and fists raised to the sky.