It’s a marvel that Earthless, the stunningly virtuosic, underground psych-rock power trio, hasn’t broken into rock’s mainstream. Their music is a mélange of late-‘60s blues-rock sludge, ‘70s prog complexity and Japanese psych-rock roar. It has also been almost exclusively instrumental, with guitarist Isaiah Mitchell, drummer Mario Rubalcaba, and bassist Mike Eginton shifting through the gears, playing lead in synchrony. It’s heavy Dixieland. On Black Heaven , Earthless adds a new gear— Mitchell’s vocals, honed with his band Golden Void—in addition to layered-in guitars and breathy sweeps of static and feedback noise. Mitchell has long been an underground guitar hero; here, his classic-rock belting grounds Earthless’ signature cosmic overdrive to the earthly plane, yielding cataclysmic and complex riff rock with progressive structures that surprise and astonish around each turn. Opening track “Gifted by the Wind,” with its Hendrixian funk pocket, is a clear departure. The band comes crunching, the drums and bass driving the muscular sound below blazing dual guitars and a vocoder-inflected solo. “End to End” builds tension with neighing feedback, theatrical band hits, and Betts/Allman guitar flourishes. Mitchell spits the lyrics with a touch of apocalyptic harmony at the end of each line. “Sudden End” is a rootsy dirge—then the guitar lead comes in like spaghetti-western metal— melodramatic and shocking. It could be a big rock radio ballad. This is a new side of Earthless, with Mitchell stepping out front. If singing demands an occasional plateau in the sonic accelerando, then the modulation lends the heaviness nuance, dynamism and direction. A rigging of the interstellar sails.