Bellafea

For the North Carolina trio Bellafea, the lines that separate punk, metal, art-rock and folk completely dissolve in a barrage of dark-hued, beguiling three-minute miracles. On the group's debut full-length Cavalcade, snaky, math-rock guitar lines bleed into solemn dirges, which in turn become sweetly sung torch songs. Lead singer and guitarist Heather McEntire doesn't need any help channeling the raw, wild power of a young Polly Jean Harvey, but the barbed-wire string arrangement that punctuates songs like "Stranger" and the bone-chilling "Telling the Hour" helps the tracks sound like they would fit snugly on Rid of Me.