Epic washes of crunchy guitar and sophisticated modern chamber music combine in the world of Kayo Dot. After the progressive metal-oriented Maudlin of the Well disbanded in late 2002, some of the group's members were lost, and a change of direction was needed. Toby Driver (vocals, guitar, electronics), Greg Massi (guitar, vocals), Nicholas Kyte (bass, vocals), Sam Gutterman (drums, vocals), and Terran Olson (keyboards, flute, clarinet, saxophone) carried on and formed Kayo Dot in early 2003. While Maudlin of the Well lived in the metal arena, Kayo Dot approached music with a more modern classical attitude. Composition was strict and the band showed interest in playing concerts the way orchestras do, more formal and in more traditional venues. Guitars and vocals still drew from the world of rock and metal, but to stress this was a new band and direction, concerts contained no Maudlin of the Well material. John Zorn's avant-garde and experimental-leaning Tzadik label issued the band's debut, Choirs of the Eye, in late 2003. In 2006 the group released the critically acclaimed Dowsing Anemone with Copper Tongue, followed by the chamber jazz-influenced Blue Lambency Downward in 2008. Arriving in 2010, the ambitious Coyote was a single narrative-driven, long-form composition in five movements that drew inspiration from artists like the Cure, Bauhaus, and Faith and the Muse, while 2012's Gamma Knife saw the group returning to the more extreme metallic style of its earlier works. The 2013 crowdfunded conceptual double album Hubardo combined aspects of black metal, post-rock, jazz fusion, and chamber music, while 2014's Coffins on Io drew on darkwave and what Driver described as "1980s retrofuture noir" for inspiration. The reliably eclectic Plastic House on Base of Sky, the group's eighth studio long-player, followed in early 2017. ~ David Jeffries