There's no getting around the fact that Calla's biggest selling point (or dealbreaker, depending on your stance) is their stalwart fixation on the melancholy. On early albums, the band sowed the seeds of that bleakness in songs devoid of ear-grabbing hooks or lofty climaxes, relying instead on more oblique methods of emotional venting. However, continuing to up the emotive ante set by 2005's surprisingly accessible Collisions, the band's new album, Strength in Numbers, goes straight for the jugular-- if not the heartstrings-- by wrapping more ideas around Calla's ambient, moody backbone than ever before.

Although their earlier material exuded a similar despair, the band experimented with its sound rather than begged for attention. But Strength in Numbers can't hide the heart on its sleeve, framing frontman Aurelio Valle's tortured vocals in conspicuous verse/chorus/verse dynamics. On "Sanctify", the record's opener, Valle bares his teeth, snarling with a sense of hurt and disgust straight out of Trent Reznor's diary-- and the band follows suit, soaring on an epic riff that falls somewhere between "Hell's Bells" and "White Wedding". But between shoegaze-y soundscapes, Calla also experiment with ideas that lead surprising byproducts like the Nirvana-tinged "Simone" or the -styled acoustic pop of "Bronson".