Dredg’s latest CD, “Catch Without Arms,” anchors its experiments in metal, rock, alternative and even pop with one of the most stunning vocal performances of 2005.

Because of the progressive nature of their music and previous work within the metal genre, dredg is frequently compared to Tool. Dredg started to escape this shadow with its instrument choices on their first new CD for Interscope Records (Interscope first re-released dredg’s previously self-published “Leitmotif”), “El Cielo,” which included saxophone, strings and trumpet.

The concept on “Catch Without Arms” is less apparently defined then the one on “El Cielo” (which was about a Salvador Dali painting and sleep paralysis), but the lyrical content does boast some common threads. “Catch” seems to discuss confronting inner turmoil and personal problems as well as how friends and lovers contribute to this process. The album is broken up into two sections on the back: the first seven songs are called “Perspective I” and the five subsequent tracks are “Perspective II.”

While all the members of dredg are technically proficient with their instruments, this album is centered around lead vocalist and guitarist Gavin Hayes, and rightly so. Hayes’ voice lends every song tons of emotional weight and atmosphere. His vocals frequently soar above the rest of the instrumental mix, with uplifting and stirring effect.

The “Perspective I” part of the CD skews more towards the older sound of dredg, although there are a few unexpected genre experiments that make their way into this section. Album opener “Ode to the Sun,” while utilizing a System of a Down style of stop-and-start guitar riffs, still hews closest to the old art-metal sound of dredg. While very similar to each other in tempo and chugging guitar-driven choruses, “Bug Eyes,” the title track and “Not That Simple” lean on unique vocal performances from Hayes and slight instrumentation differences to avoid some of the redundancy.

What follows after this is one of the most interesting tracks on the album, “Zebraskin,” which sounds like a bona fide pop song. With squiggling background synths and electric drums, Hayes imitates Genesis and Mike and the Mechanics founder Mike Rutherford’s voice for a song that simultaneously mourns a lost friend and suggests that subtly suggests that alcohol might be turning into his new best friend. “The Tanbark is Hot Lava” returns to a more aggressive, sped-up tempo with stuttering, machine-gun guitars, but dredg follows it with “Sang Real,” another poppier track driven by apparently programmed drums and piano.

The second section hews more towards a progressive rock as opposed to metal sound. Both “Spitshine” and “Jamais Vu” feature a scribbling guitar sound, but “Spitshine’s chorus makes more of an attempt at accessiblity than the song it precedes. The album’s last rocker, “Hung Over on a Tuesday,” returns to the hazy drugs/alcohol abuse theme from earlier in the album as well as an ending relationship.

Album closer “Matroshka” is almost a power ballad, but a piano and shuffling high hat interlude after the song’s first section help avoid some of the cheese.

Dredg have sacrificed some of their more sonically difficult experimentations, but their bravery in dabbling in pop music is backed up well by Hayes’ vocals.