Yes In My Backyard is a semiweekly column showcasing MP3s from new and emerging local talent.

Thaddeus Ruzicka

​Somewhere at the crossroads of punk, metal, sludge, garage, and a beer-soaked bag of 12-sided die lie Brooklyn chug-monsters Elks. Much like contemporaries High On Fire or Coliseum, the band is at once majestic and rollicking, matching fantastic, orc-stabbing melodies with a friendly, Mastodonic gallop. Their forthcoming debut EP, Elks In Space, is a monstrous, six-song concept record "chronicling the history of a tribe of nomadic space Vikings." The album was recorded by Made Out Of Babies guitarist Brendan Tobin, also responsible for this year's similarly sludge-gunked YIMBY grads Cleanteeth. Says guitarist Josh Scannell, "It was the first session I've been involved in that hasn't made me want to kill things." The midpoint of their cosmo-warrior epic is "Destined For The Sun," a track that is simultaneously brutal and hella fun--mostly thanks to the jaunty triplet feel, some completely unhinged guitar solos, and no shortage of fist-banging mania. Plus there's the whole space Viking thing. To infinity and beyond!

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