Bardo Pond

Bardo Pond is back, ready once again to kill your brain like a poisonous mushroom.

Known as Philadelphia, PA's premier psychedelic underground outfit, the Pond has thrived in noisy obscurity since the late '80s, making records with drug-reference titles and a sonic patchouli of distorted guitars and blurry vocals from frontwoman Isobel Sollenberger. Bardo songs don't live in the boorish world of verse-chorus-verse; the band breathes experimentalism and suffuses every song with sonic grandeur.

Dilate isn't likely to win the band many fans beyond its usual niche, but that's a shame. This record represents the most pronounced departure in sound since the start of the band's career, as it shows a willingness to strip down while peppering its sound with less overwhelming flourishes than sheets of noise.

Nowhere is that more evident than on the album's seventh track, "Despite the Roar." Based around a single acoustic guitar riff sung over by a still-unintelligible Sollenberger, the epic track builds with a soundtrack's sense of pace that peaks with distant, drifting guitars.

As it seems all bands do when they try to "experiment," Bardo also does the obligatory Eastern tune: the tabla-and-sitar meditation. "Swig." And the 11-minute "Inside" actually has the distinction of being a Sollenberger song whose lyrics you can follow.

Despite some of the new directions, Bardo Pond still throws around plenty of the heavy metal. The colossal guitar sound is still there on most tracks; the difference lies in Bardo's use of softer melodies and sounds to balance its noisy edge. Songs like "Aphasia" benefit from short acoustic intros; if nothing else, they give Sollenberger a chance to explain herself before she's buried in the effects pedal vortex.

And even for a band that knows its effects pedals, Dilate shows real sonic prowess. The album's sound prioritizes its new sounds over the noise; rather than walling off everything else, the guitars seem more like backdrop, while drummer Joe Culver and Sollenberger are more fully able to take the reigns. Each track is crafted with '60s-style stereophonics-riffs shift from the left channel to the right, and crossfades are common.

Mainstream fans may never get past Bardo's "noise band" moniker. But those willing to challenge themselves with it-especially chronic substance abusers-will find their exploration richly rewarded.