On its excellent, self-titled new album, Utah barely seems to take a breath. For nine tracks and 50 immersive minutes, the local metal outfit (now expanded to a four-piece, with the addition of Guzik's Chris Parry) explores the darkest and weirdest depths of heavy music in much the same way as another, more mysterious local outfit.

Indeed, though the band's brand of anti-rock is less desperately nihilistic than that of Harvey Milk, Utah's main strength is the convincing and rather subversive way it eschews tradition; though the band does the whole downtuned thing quite well, the moments that elevate Utah above the rest of the doom-rock pack are the unexpected ones: the acoustic outros on "Chickamauga" and "Kneecaps," for example, or the proudly cheesy wizard-synths that introduce 12-minute closer "Black Sandwich."

Like most of its contemporaries, Utah won't win over any non-metalheads with its latest offering. But for those unable to resist the underworldly lure of drop-D crunch, of sparse but anthemic vocal flourishes, of slow-mo guitarmonies and explosive bass-groove workouts—this is your band, indeed.

Utah plays the Caledonia Lounge on Friday, Jan. 25.