San Francisco Bay Area-based power quintet Howlin Rain's third album The Russian Wilds passionately protests the currently popular notion that heroically conceived and executed rock music is a thing of golden ages passed.

Having been formed by bandleader-singer-guitarist Ethan Miller in 2004, as a melodic offshoot of blazing new-psych innovators Comets On Fire, Howlin Rain soon caught the attention of uber-producer Rick Rubin, who signed them to his American Recordings label and involved himself deeply in their subsequent musical evolution thereafter.

Arriving Valentine's Day 2012 (March 12 in UK/Europe), The Russian Wilds is a sprawling, Pynchon-esque labyrinth and a colorful, feeling-filled catalyst for hungry minds. It's the masterwork earlier studio sets and Howlin Rain's barn-burning live shows have hinted at given blood and bone by a group in their fighting prime.