Calla - "Strength in Numbers" (Beggars Banquet)

Apparently, a calla lily is a graceful, white flower—that also happens to be poisonous if ingested. It naturally follows that the eyes of New York rock trio Calla’s lead singer, Aurelio Valle, look at you from his press photo as if you interrupted his twilight mourn-fest.

And so you might guess that Calla’s new album, “Strength In Numbers,” would come across as languidly melancholic, the kind of thing your local high school debate semi-finalist might listen to in order to feel “alternative.”

But despite the cheesy poisonous flower name and the fact that the album’s first song, “Sanctify,” rolls in with music that could score one of The Rock’s action films, Calla has created something new: Dinosaur Rock.

The music’s primordial tendencies come across on songs like “Sanctify,” which centers on low, melancholic tones and predictable rock chord progressions that lead to their own extinction in your consciousness.

Or perhaps it’s the sense of menace, magnified by Valle’s low whisper, that curls you into the song’s harmonic arms while the brontosaurus beat stomps forward. The tracks rotate upon revolving choruses and repeating lines (e.g. “There’s no harm / There’s no harm / There’s no harm done”) but the circles shift sufficiently to make the songs interesting.

Slow harmonic builds like the one at the end of “Sleep in Splendor” are what redeem this disc from the oblivion of sonorous boredom.

And thank goodness that almost midway through the disc, the rolling guitar of “Rise” hits. The song, which boasts a loosely trotting chorus that hints at Spanish guitar and dusty Western dreams, exemplifies Calla’s strengths. The layered vocals and unexpected sounds, like the machine-screechings introducing “Stand Paralyzed” or the “Edward Scissorhands”-worthy ambient monster noise in “Malo,” expand the songs from simple folksy melodies into distinct, subtly beautiful moods.

Melodically mournful guitars back ghostly lyrics on “A Sure Shot”: “In my mind / You’re in my head / At this moment you’re as good as dead.” Intriguing sound experiment “Le Gusta el Fuego” provides relief by crashing in next with a lighter snare, trippy guitar, third-grade quality piano-playing, and what might be the warped voices of people stuck in a revolving time machine.

“Simone” makes you sit up and listen, if only because it’s more generic than the esoteric “Le Gusta el Fuego.” It is the closest this CD comes to a rock anthem, featuring Jack White’s hard riffs with the Cure’s harmonic guitar lines thrown on top, for good tap-your-feet measure.

The song’s end is almost happy, as minor gives way to major, like a little burst of sun after the melancholic dinosaur storm. It’s just too bad that the disc ends on a more mainstream note. As enjoyable as “Dancers in the Dust” is, it rises up like Shrek at movie’s end: triumphant, bursting with light, but never really changed.

Calla’s a band that sounds like Snow Patrol after being mauled by Minus the Bear. Their Dinosaur Rock may occasionally feel tried and archaic, but at least it’s a different beast.