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To lock in with the Refectory, a three-piece rock band whose members all live west of Waterbury, you have to reconcile a few disparate musical forces.

On “The Refectory,” a new five-song EP (to be released on June 30), time is fluid and grooves ebb and flow across multi-part songs that range in length from six to nine minutes.

“Subconsciously, we usually have two to three, maybe four different parts that we repeat, but within that, we’ll throw in totally different variations,” says singer-guitarist Robbie Vozza. “We never intentionally set anything up as verse / chorus / verse / chorus / bridge.”

The drums, played by Brian DiCrescenzo (who has since left the band), are loose and improvisatory, the wash of cymbals near-constant. Loud sections balance quiet ones. This is heavy music, no doubt, but Vozza croons more than howls, his voice rarely rising above a stern yell (at the beginning of “Din,” the fourth track, for example).

Vozza and guitarist Jonathan DeCarlo, meanwhile, conjure doomy, stoner-rock riffs that arise suddenly; elsewhere, the guitars spar like boxers, trading minor-key clusters and power chords.

“I like to find pockets of space inside of Robbie’s riffs to bring out different aspects,” DeCarlo says.

On June 30, the Refectory — DeCarlo, Vozza and bassist-turned-drummer Ben Stokes — will host a CD release show at the Ballroom at the Outer Space in Hamden, with Yer Trash, Quiet Giant, Ports of Spain and Ourselves, Alone opening.

As teenagers, Vozza, 30, and DeCarlo, 31, played in a band called Ghost Sonata. They later formed Dawn Mother, with DiCrescenzo and his brother, Michael, on bass. It lasted a year.

Vozza, Michael DiCrescenzo and drummer Alexa Ambrose then started the Refectory (Brian DiCrescenzo replaced Ambrose on drums), with DeCarlo joining up during tracking of “Spiral Staircases,” the band’s three-song debut. Michael DiCrescenzo’s work schedule tightened, and DeCarlo recruited Stokes to play the bass.

Last November, the quartet (Vozza, DeCarlo, Stokes and Brian DiCrescenzo) rented a cabin in Chester, Vt., and crammed the place with gear; four days later, they emerged with five new demos.

“We had a couple of ideas going in, but 80 percent of the writing happened there,” DeCarlo says. “The chemistry was at a good point.”

“A lot of times, we can read where we’re each going with our parts,” adds Vozza. “It was a pretty smooth writing process.”

Vozza came equipped with a notebook full of lyrics. “I’ve always had a hard time writing about really happy things,” he says. “It’s easier for me to write about darker things.”

At Mother Brother Studios in Bethel (DeCarlo is a part owner), the Refectory re-recorded the five songs completely live (except for vocals) in only three days. They selected final takes and sequenced them together. Vozza then sang his way through the EP in one straight shot. It was a weird way to cut a record, but it’s a method they’ll revisit.

“No gimmicks,” Stokes says. “What you hear is what you get.”

“It was a personal thing for me,” Vozza says. “If I’m just tracking the guitar, the emotion doesn’t come through. The tightness doesn’t come through the same way.”

“We wanted to capture where we’re most at home, which is playing live in a room together,” DeCarlo says. “We’re trying to capture a conversation. If you try to have a conversation with an answering machine, it doesn’t work.”

The Refectory, left to right: Jonathan DeCarlo, Ben Stokes, Robbie Vozza.
The Refectory, left to right: Jonathan DeCarlo, Ben Stokes, Robbie Vozza.

You hear the influence of math-rock, especially on “Bull in a Zoo” and the epic “Din,” but you can’t point to any odd meters. If choruses aren’t really the thing here, certain pockets get burned into memory through repetition. “I’m trying not to fall, I’m trying to be safe,” Vozza sings on the back half of “Three Towns Away,” over two alternating chords that get chopped up a dozen or more ways.

There’s arguably more smoldering down-time than balls-out rock, but even that’s tension-filled; “even Christ gives no advice,” Vozza seethes on “Pretty Rows,” roughly halfway through the EP, over guitar arpeggios dirtied up by a crackling-vinyl pedal effect, “to sweet boys making waves.”

Brian DiCrescenzo, who runs Low Brow Printshop in Bethel, left the band in March, and Stokes switched to drums. Without a bass player, Vozza and DeCarlo split their signals through dual guitar/bass setups, doubling guitar parts an octave below as needed. It seems to be going well.

Stokes, who played bass on the EP, has since had to reconnect with the material as a drummer. At the first practice, Stokes “showed up and he nailed it,” Vozza says.

“Playing shows, I was always standing right next to Brian,” Stokes says. “I was fairly familiar with his parts.”

The Refectory has only played a few live shows as a trio. In general, their sets feel like long, continuous suites, and that’s probably the best way to experience the band’s music. They’re already writing new material they feel will work better with the new setup.

“We’re always looking for ways to seamlessly blend things together,” DeCarlo says. “Becoming a trio definitely felt like another reset.”

After the CD release show, the Refectory has more gigs lined up for late-summer and fall. Expect another EP before the end of 2017.

“Right now, this dynamic is really working for us,” Vozza says. “People think being in a band [that] you just need good musicians. More than that, it’s about getting everyone’s schedules together and band chemistry. That’s the hardest thing to find. The dynamic between the three of us is what I’ve wanted for a long time.”

THE REFECTORY performs at the Ballroom at the Outer Space in Hamden on June 30 at 7:30 p.m., with Quiet Giant, Ports Of Spain, Ourselves, Alone and Yer Trash opening. Tickets are $8 to $10. theouterspace.net