Riddle of Steel

St. Louis trio Riddle of Steel does its thing with unabashed gusto — its thing being fantastic feats of guitar virtuosity and dynamic derring-do, à la Jawbox. The band has hooks galore and the talent to make them zing, though on Got This Feelin‘ it often powers on a bit too far, as if the three players can’t quite resist showing off an amp-quaking riff, glassine melody or polyrhythmic drum beat for just a little while longer. Their complicated rockin’ contrasts oddly with the passive, then aggressive, then-passive-aggressive trade-off vocals of bassist Jimmy Vavak and guitarist Andrew Elstner, all of which seems carefully designed to frighten the snot out of habitual narcotics users wasted out of their gourds while wowing on Riddle’s jaw-dropping wares. Clean and sober listeners may get a contact high.