Go through the French Quarter and try to find a New Orleans tchochke that features a member of Suplecs. Sure, there are stylized trumpet players, sax players and pianists on prints, T-shirts, coffee mugs and shotglasses, but there are no longhaired guitar players nodding over grinding riffs. The souvenir army has tragically overlooked them and New Orleans’ heavy bands, and that’s a shame because for once, the city’s rock is actually a part of something going on nationally.

A case in point is Suplecs’ new album, Wrestlin’ With My Lady Friend. More and more bands are reexamining ’70 metal, and in Suplecs’ case, they are seeing what can be done with Black Sabbath’s glacial tempos and heavily compressed guitars. Their reference to ’70 metal is not derivative or nostalgic; the riffs may be heavy and familiar, but the sense of humor is complex and ironic in a way few bands then were. There are easy jokes—“Dope Fu” and “Moped,” which celebrates riding one—but more typically, lyrics are either perfectly observed (“Just another night in Fat City/Wrestling with my lady friend”) or subversively dumb (a “hellbound journey”—are there any other kinds in metal?—is “kinda neat”).

That sort of humor distinguishes Suplecs, but no one buys metal albums for the lyrics. Metal is about riffs, riffs and more riffs, and guitarist Durel Yates measures them out perfectly. They plod along just the way they’re supposed to, giving every overdriven, fuzz-drenched chord a chance to sink in. Where other bands might take a guitar solo, Suplecs opts for another riff, just as heavy as the first. In that way too, they pay a debt to Sabbath, but the Sabbath reference isn’t entirely accurate because Suplecs doesn’t sound as much like them as it may seem; it’s more accurate to say they sound like we remember Black Sabbath sounding.