Goose have spent the past few years quietly becoming one of America’s most fascinating rock bands, a jam powerhouse with a literary streak, a prog heart, and a knack for slipping between eras like they’re flipping channels on some cosmic TV. After the release of Everything Must Go earlier this year, the band is already back with Chain Yer Dragon, another album that expands their universe.

If Everything Must Go was the sound of a band leveling up, Chain Yer Dragon is Goose looking inward, dusting off their origins, and building an entire world around them. It’s a record steeped in the spirit of '70s rock and barroom mystique, where back booth stories meet the freewheeling improvisation that’s become their live-show signature. From the jump, the album feels like leafing through a dog-eared paperback written in a language only diehards can fully decode.

The songs “Madalena” and “Royal” kick the door wide open to the Night Rays Band universe, characters and imagery first conjured by guitarist and vocalist Rick Mitarotonda and longtime buddy Matt Campbell back in 2011. More than a decade later, Goose return to those ideas with the vision of musicians who’ve found their voice, their audience, and their lane. “There’s a world-building component that feels like the driving force of this record,” Mitarotonda explains. And that’s exactly how it plays. The album acts as connective tissue across the band’s lifespan, bringing beloved live staples like “Echo Of A Rose,” “Empress Of Organos,” “Rockdale,” and “Factory Fiction” into the fold of a fully fleshed-out narrative experience. Songs now woven into the mythology, expanding the geography of Goose’s imagination, with old favorites becoming new landmarks.

What makes Chain Yer Dragon special is the overall vibe… organic, unfussy, and crackling with the playful instinct of their live energy. Goose lean into improvisation but never let go of the rope, giving the record the feel of a backstage jam that caught fire and accidentally spilled out onto the stage. The storytelling is deep but never self-indulgent, with lyrical callbacks, recurring characters, and atmospheric locales that bring listeners into dimly lit clubs, on long drives, and hazy mornings where everything suddenly clicks into focus. And it’s all stitched together by mood, memory, and the band’s unmistakable chemistry. Goose may be pushing forward fast, but Chain Yer Dragon is a reminder that evolution often starts with excavation. To understand where you're going, you have to look back at where you’ve been.