Dirt

YT//ST’s third studio album successfully wrangles the band’s overload of inspirations and aspirations into a close-to-cohesive whole, a grandiose, tragicomic space opera that’s fun on first listen and full of what-all to work with, the deeper one digs. The elaborate concept, a salute to ’80s anime, suits the prog-rock caprice and power-metal punch, while the informed application of ideas from Buddhism and Haudenosaunee First Nations repositions exploratory rock to a place it really should be at today, especially in Canada.