LISTINGS A lbum OF THE WEEK

JUST ANNOUNCED

LIARS AND LIONS

NEW HORIZONS

Liars and Lions almost had me fooled. I had to check the release date to confirm that, yes, New Horizons was actually made in 2019. If I didn’t know any better, I would have guessed that the band was trying to make the hottest rock record of 2000.

That’s a way of saying that the duo—imaad Dalal and Nick Waterman do pretty much everything, from writing the songs to mixing the recordings—have zero interest in competing with Cage the Giant or Young the Elephant or Foster the Dragons or whatever the hell passes for rock ’n’ roll these days. The ironically titled New Horizons is a cannily accurate sonic return to the days when Papa Roach, Staind, and Linkin Park ruled the charts. And hell, these guys are actually really good at what they do, which makes the record a fairly convincing argument that a numetal revival is what the world needs right now.

As a vocalist, Dalal can pull off the sort of big, soaring choruses into which Chester Bennington used to pour all of his considerable angst; instrumentals such as “Bubbles” and “Level One Redux” highlight the fact that these guys can shred like motherfuckers.

All that’s missing is an actual human being behind a kit rather than the drum programming heard all over the album. Oh, and possibly a time machine to take Dalal and Waterman back to an era when their talents would be more widely appreciated. Like, say, 2000.