Agony and Extasy, the first album by Vancouver band The Sindicate, is like a sick joke found in any of your favorite horror stories. The album opens with samples from Dr. Tarr’s Torture Dungeon, a 1973 motion picture partially based on a comedic short by Poe. The first four tracks and the album’s closer are all nods to short stories by Edgar Allen Poe. Dark themes and melodic rock dominate this front of the album. The band turns aggressive on “Habeas Corpus” and the head-trippy “Welcome Welcome,” the latter the hardest and one of the best tracks of the album.

Slowly, the band’s reggae inhibitions are released, starting with “What God?” with features an original rap by Tone Bone. The dark themes mixed with lazy, colorful beats become a musical landscape that seems like Poe doing comedy. The brand of sardonic rock mixed with balls-to-the-wall playing on “Haters” and “Slut” turn into classic sounding Portland punk, and reminds me of the work created by Ridgefield trio SmirK.

The defining moment of Agony and Extasy comes from “Best Friends.” The band kicks into another staggering beat while lead singer Dominic Bianchini utters anything but condolences for life. “So what, so what if I kill you,” Bianchini sings, pauses, then continues, “and your best friends, too.”

“The Light” is a hidden gem just before the end of the road, while “Masque of the Red Death” returns a bit to the opening numbers for exit music. By the end of the 15 tracks, however, the band is a long way from where they started.

The band is filled out by Joshua Garrett (lead guitar), Stephan Clark (bass) and James Davenport (drums). Agony and Extasy was recorded, produced and mixed by Brad Douglas and Jasen A. Mortenson of Intertwining Studios in Vancouver.

I saw The Sindicate earlier in the year at Pepper’s. I wasn’t too impressed. (Maybe I was too distracted by the bad set up; Note to Pepper’s, put the band in the bar and use the restaurant as overflow space/drinking area, just a suggestion). But Agony and Extasy puts the band in a much better light and showcases a promising band honing its craft and playing music loud in the mean time.