Skeleton Key

Talk about real industrial metal music. These New York-based "junk rockers" are just as likely to play a battered coffeepot, frying pan, or Radio Flyer wagon as their "normal" instruments. With their synthesis of clang-and-bang sounds and the gloom-and-doom lyrics of singer/bassist Erik Sanko, the Keys are equally at home in a modern art gallery and on a club stage. Their surprisingly fluid new CD, Obtainium, is more focused than previous records, but the rhythms are scattered all over the place like tools in a high school shop class. SK's off-kilter existentialism won't be to everyone's liking, but it will appeal to admirers of John Cage, Tom Waits, and the vastly underrated Fat Albert and the Junkyard Gang.