Thursday night: The United Sons Of Toil, Disguised As Birds, Masonry

A sludgy, hard-rocking instrumental trio with leftist politics, Milwaukee band Masonry prides itself on being difficult to characterize. “Math-rock” is probably the most accurate genre tag, though Masonry is too melodic and ballsy to fit comfortably under that banner. Suffice it to say adventurous listeners with a penchant for loud jams should be able to sink their teeth into Masonry’s thick grooves. Fellow Milwaukeeans Disguised As Birds get lots of melodic mileage out of slashing post-punk guitars, rubbery basslines, and slamming, occasionally jazzy drums on their recent release, Seeds. Madison trio The United Sons Of Toil took a few months off after releasing their second album of fierce math-rock dirges, Until Lions Have Their Historians, Tales Of The Hunt Shall Always Glorify The Hunter. This past weekend, they returned to Madison stages with a new drummer, Jason Jensen. During a set Saturday at the High Noon Saloon (opening for The Hanson Brothers, of all things), Jensen seemed to click with guitarist/yeller Russell Hall and bassist Bill Borowski, though he doesn't pound his drums quite as loudly as his predecessor, Chad Burnett. The new lineup's already added one new song to their set, "State-Sponsored Terrorism." In keeping with the Toil's M.O. so far, it's a burst of rage, complexity, and grim politics. That approach has served the band well on such tunes as "The Forced March Of Manifest Destiny," and it should continue that way during tonight's show at Inferno.