Panthers

Surfing the retro-rock revival wave isn’t a bad thing if you’ve got balance, and Brooklyn-based Panthers have it. The power rock quartet’s found the perfect median between melodic stoner rock, fast-paced punk, and ’70s metal here. Tracks like “Uncertainly” have the high energy of punk, alongside fuzzy, fast-paced garage riffs, while others, like “Listen to Me,” recall the grunge era, as vocalist Jayson Green’s voice takes on the growling drawl of Mudhoney’s Mark Arm. But what Panthers do best of all is give doom metal a pop sensibility, inserting jolly keyboards into “The Trick,” a deep, dark Black Sabbath-feeling number, and putting a bouncy rhythm behind a chugging, stalking power riff in “Hey Creep.”