The Birmingham-based quintet I Am Terrified is a study in contrasts, always zigging when you thought you saw a zag coming. After six years of constant performing and forceful sonic development, the blazing metal core band serves up this self-titled 6-track EP from Mono vs Stereo as compelling documentation of their unique, spirit-driven journey.

Alabama continues its remarkable trend of turning out hard-driving players with serious southern grit. Founding IAT members Jeremy Folse (guitarist), Patrick Schefano (vocalist), and Joel Bailey (drums) knew each other from local schools and churches.

Main songwriter Schefano, in fact, comes from a small, musically austere Southern Baptist Church that featured one woman on a tiny upright and a small choir. But all three members mined their church hymnals for spiritual perspective and sonic structure, the fruit of those excavations showing up years later in the innovative, experimental music of I Am Terrified.