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, slippery 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.