There is a ferocious, blood-and-iron honesty coursing through Lior Golan’s new EP, "MIDNIGHT TRAINS", that makes standard heavy rock feel strangely tame. Based in Tel Aviv, the guitarist, composer, and producer crafts music as an urgent survival mechanism, steeped in the grand, rumbling lineage of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Golan channels staggering personal trauma battles with addiction, the lingering ghosts of PTSD from...

Well, Ricky Leroy Brown has gone and done it, presenting us with "SEXUAL MANUAL FOR EXPERTS," and I confess, the title alone sent my mind skittering off like a startled cat at a séance. This solo Madrileño, who conjures entire soundscapes from his own hands and instruments, is clearly still communing with the spirit of Prince, all slinky guitars and a rhythm section that...