Tension: Corner Gospel Explosion

Corner Gospel Explosion’s debut full-length album “Tension” is comparable to standing next to an oil painting you’ve long admired from afar.

If you’re familiar with the band live, you’ve heard most of the 10 tracks on “Tension” before, but never like this. The album reins in the band’s energetic, nearly unhinged live performances just enough to allow all those details you may have missed while headbanging away to shine through.

The immediate takeaway is that singer/drummer Bradley David Parsons is one hell of a songwriter, with a knack for eerie melodies (“Disappear”), soaring choruses (“Song in the Trees,” “Taking Place,” just about any other song on the record) and intricate arrangements (epic seven-minute plus album closer “Through the Fence & Out”). Again, fans have known this for some time, but the crisp production (Parsons engineered along with John Theesen) makes it that much more apparent.

Parsons and his brother, Tyler, make for a rock-solid rhythm section, providing an unwavering back beat for keyboardist Chase Mickel and guitarist Brandon Prinzing to soar over. Prinzing’s heroics are most apparent, especially in the punishing riffs of “Type… Type… Type …” and “Sky is Falling (Na Na Na).” Mickel’s contributions are more subtle, but no less important, coloring in the gaps and pushing songs such as the aforementioned “Taking Place” into the stratosphere.

Speaking of that song, it’s the album’s highlight, hands down, combining all the stylistic threads this band explores (huge riffs, lockstep rhythms, acoustic atmospherics) and pointing to what could lie ahead.

Corner Gospel Explosion album release show; 7 p.m. today; free; The Old Stone Church, 157 NW Franklin Ave., Bend; www.oscbend.com. —Brian McElhiney