Planes Mistaken for Stars

With the October release of Mercy, Planes Mistaken for Stars’ seventh release in nearly 10 years, the band’s metal cred has grown again. For its first Abacus Recordings disc, the group worked with Matt Bayles, whose production credits include heavyweights Mastodon and Isis. The Denver quartet’s face-melting power is in no way diminished by the jump to a larger label — rather, the chance to work on a bigger scale with a handpicked producer has only intensified, darkened and deepened the Planes’ roar.