Pitchfork

Dragged by Horses are a three-piece out of Humboldt County, Calif., far to the north of the state. At the county's southernmost point, it's still 225 miles from San Francisco, and much of the area could safely be called rural-- not much to speak of but a couple of colleges, strong weed, and a bunch of giant redwoods. The band's heaviness is just as elemental and matter-of-fact as their forest surroundings, but their sound is a little more nervous, and nods further south: to San Diego, home of Drive Like Jehu, who are clearly a compass point for this young band. They don't share the complex riffs and odd time signatures of DLJ, but they have the tone down, and are heavy without resorting to any raucous distortion, double bass-drum attacks, or quiet-to-loud; theirs is a much more subtle style of bludgeoning. More than that, without the use of laid-back surfer signifiers or sweetened Beach Boy-styled harmonies, they still manage to represent their zip code.

If only the whole of Deep in the Woods lived up to the promise of its first track. "Queen of the Nile" has an ominous drum patter that unwinds as slow as its circular guitar riff and creeping bass line, while singer Pablo Midence and some barely audible piano chords are drops in a bottomless bucket of open space. The guitars up the attack and the drums hit harder, but there's no explosion, just a swell in volume that recedes as quickly and unceremoniously as it started. "Mas Por Dinero" is earthy and oppressive like the best stoner-rock, but nervier and more prone to full band stop-starts, and with a mix of Spanish and English in the Midence's barked lyrics.

"One Way Ticket to Rome" has a similar kind of tension between its elastic riff and the jerks and heaves of the rhythm section, but as the record progresses, the sharp dynamics alone can't overcome the uniform sound of the record as a whole. "The Need to Fight" sustains tension with build-ups and fake-outs, but tracks like "Snailshine" or "Depth Charge" don't have much resonance beyond the initial stun of their tricky rhythm (not to mention limber drumming throughout). "1,000,000" sneaks in a memorable hook near the record's end, and if they could take advantage of open space as they did at the album's start, and were Midence to grow as a guitarist and incorporate more melody, the band could easily grow beyond their influences and their surroundings. As is, Deep in the Woods has an enticing sound with a few great tracks.