Metal, pop among Vegas tunes

One hundred proof gothic country, terse metal and kaleidoscopic pop constitute the latest survey of Vegas music, all of which you can check out online.

SOLITUDE BLACK (reverbnation.com/solitudeblack): His voice is cold and bloodless, as if antifreeze courses through the dude's veins. Solitude Black's frontman often begins his tunes with a menacing hiss, like a villain detailing his bad intentions, before escalating into a pained growl, as if he had a leg caught in a bear trap. Set against a shadowy backdrop of ominous keys and a turgid guitar crunch, it engenders an equally haunting and harrowing atmosphere that colors Black's caustic industrial metal the shade of its namesake.

The riffs here are heavier than a murder's conscience, and particularly dense and suffocating on "Man in Black" and "You Are Mine."

This is the musical equivalent of getting a plastic bag pulled tight around your air passages.

REVEREND LORD'S UNHOLY SAINTS (reverbnation.com/jaredthomaslord): Reverend Lord's pitch-black Americana is filled with the kind of ne'er-do-wells you don't ever want to meet: no good, two-timing dames, alcoholic nine-to-fivers, murderers who cut their victims down like stalks of wheat.

This is doomsday country, hellfire folk, with Reverend Lord giving voice to it all like he was possessed by the ghost of Hank Williams Sr. Over mostly spare acoustic arrangements, he sings of passing out in broken glass and waking up the next day with the foul taste of last night's beer still lingering on the breath.

In a way, it's some uplifting stuff: No matter how bad you think you've got it, the characters who populate these tunes always seem to have it just a little bit worse.

IAN SHANE TYLER (myspace.com/ianshanetyler): Before he even graduated from high school, Ian Shane Tyler was expected to graduate to bigger and better things. As the former frontman for promising popsters Red Light School District, Tyler exhibited a songwriting savvy beyond his years, and major labels took notice.

But these days, Tyler seems to have tired a bit of the expectations.

"Everybody's got this idea of me, of who I am and who I'm supposed to be," he sings on "Nothing's Wrong With Me."

But Tyler's still penning heart-on-the-sleeve pop that ranges from Elliott Smith worthy sighs like "Keep Your Feet on the Ground" to the equally catchy and clamorous "Don't Forget."

"I'm breaking free of who I used to be," he notes at one point, but thankfully, it's not a complete break.

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476.