Vegas bands pack punch

Jazz fusion that packs a punch and some disco deathcore highlight the latest roundup of Vegas discs:

SEARCHLIGHT, "Until the End and After" (myspace.com/searchlightmusic): Adam Michaels' words gush out of him like blood pouring from an open vein. "You can't lock me up for feeling," the Searchlight singer/guitarist announces on his band's debut, and it's a good thing, too, or else the dude would be serving 25 to life.

Michaels' desperate whelp powers Searchlight's confessional, ever-earnest radio rock, which hyperventilates from near-screamo adrenaline bursts ("Mastermind") to starry-eyed pop ("For the Moment") to a brooding, piano-tinged slow burn ("Contagious").

This "End" is a promising enough beginning.

THIS ROMANTIC TRAGEDY, "Trust in Fear" (myspace.com/thsromantictragedy): It's like having a sock hop in a hospital emergency ward, such is the mix of beats, bruises and bloodshed. This Romantic Tragedy spikes metalcore trademarks -- foundation rattlin' breakdowns, lung strafing shrieks -- with huge trance synths and a digital throb meant to get bodies moving on the dance floor as well as the mosh pit.

This approach is best embodied in "I'll Shoot You Down," which begins with a hint of Autotune pop before erupting with an arms in the air chorus, jags of dissonant guitar and vocals gruff enough to scare the crap out of Grandma.

SOLARCADE, "Songs for the Gathering" (myspace.com/solarcade): Solarcade frontman Paul Van doesn't just telegraph his feelings, he practically sears them into your flesh with the white hot branding iron that is his inflamed emoting.

"I believe it's going to be a better day, I believe everything going to be OK," he purrs on "When She Come Around," a would-be hit on the adult alternative airwaves. Solarcade's well-heeled pop rock aims to be a hand on your shoulder, reassuring and refined, with ringing guitar lines, touches of synth and the kind of pleading melodrama that'll be soundtracking the slow dances to many a prom this spring.

DINNER MUSIC FOR THE GODS, "Black Candle Cafe" (myspace.com/dinnermusicforthegods): The problem with jazz fusion? Not enough kick ass song titles like "Head on a Stick," "Circle of Fire" or, better yet, "Rabid Camel."

So leave it to a bunch of metalheads to right the genre's wrongs. Consisting of former members of overlooked Vegas metallers Ultra Vulture, DMFTG connects the dots between Sabbath, Santana and Al Di Meola on their debut, blending a deft, jazzy guitar interplay, zig-zagging bass lines and a flamenco swing in places with touches of muscular, double-bass drumming and thrash riffing.

The result is a disc that adds some heft and torque to the jazz ranks, like a circle pit erupting at a Pat Metheny gig.

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476.