Known for their work in the dark recesses of heavy music via such vehicles as Khanate, ISIS, and Blind Idiot God, it would have been easy enough for the trio of Aaron Turner, James Plotkin and Tim Wyskida to kick out something adequately dark and crushing with the formation of Jodis in 2007. Certainly outside expectations of what the group would sound like fell along those lines, but to the dismay of some and the delight of others, the final results were altogether more lush, melodic, and downright beautiful than anything previously imagined. After several years of steady concentrated work, Jodis have returned with their sophomore album, Black Curtain. Once again, the trio's emphasis on sparseness and tension remains in full force, but is tempered by a greater focus on melody and slow blooming song structure. While its predecessor thrived on a kind of predatory patience, Black Curtain's reserve is more of a salve than a threat. The album opens with "Broken Ground", where spikes of reverbdrenched guitar sprawl across a humming electronic horizon, over which delicately draped vocal melodies twist, collide and dissolve. Drums occasionally rise from the ether, punctuating the meditative passages of pastoral calm. The band continues to explore the many outlets of their panoramic minimalism across the airy expanses of "Silent Temple", the shimmering melancholy of "Red Bough", the hymn-like repetition of "Corridor", and the mantric chants of "Awful Feast". The more visceral and vitriolic elements of Jodis's members' past work are put on hold for the majority of Black Curtain.