Arcana 13's "Danza Macabra" album will surprise you and continue to pleasantly surprise you. They bring the expected, requisite fuzz and tube-y tones required of Metal dabblers in Doom, occult, and 70s Horror films, but also carry unexpectedly sumptuous vocal melodies and digable, busy guitar riffage. Not just the expected Iommi/Black Sabbath influence, but also strong heaping’s of Corrosion of Conformity, Kyuss (though less Queens of the Stone Age), Cathedral, first-album Iron Maiden, and pre-pop Black Keys. There's menace here, to be sure, but it's not as unsettling or dark as the song titles, lyrics, or striking album cover would suggest.

"Danza Macabra" is instead a damn smooth ride through haunted, shadowy places, straight out of 70s horror films, just without the clichéd vehicle breakdown on the side of the road. The enchantment of the music deepens with each subsequent listen; the strongest moments are best-appreciated when revisiting them. I rated each song with 1 through 5 stars as I went through my first set of full album listens, and was surprised (there's that word again) at how many 4-star songs there are. No 5-star tunes, but lots of 4s - including: ‘ArcaneXIII’, ‘Oblivion Mushroom’, ‘Suspiria’ (instrumental cover of Goblin's theme to the Dario Argento film), and ‘Hell Behind You’.

Recommended. Clarification: In spite of the album title, "Danza Macabra" contains nothing about a scary Tony Danza, LOL.