After a six year absence, Josh Homme and co return with an eighth blistering, brutally brilliant, meaty loud rock LP, returning to more to their roots too – dark, powerfully emotional, ironic, sharp, witty and powerful, here with some elements of Scary Monsters-era Bowie, Cream, epic glam rock, and all fuelled by various personal tragedies. For Homme those include the loss of close friends and fellow musicians Mark Lanagan and Taylor Hawkins, a painful divorce and battling cancer. So there’s plenty of life curveballs coming up here pushed through a dark and potent prism of heavy rock, and while the title might sound like a graphic font, it’s more like the sound of emotional ancient empires battling, crumbling and defiantly rising again. Unlike 2017’s Villains, are no gentle acoustic tracks here, the volume and power relentless, at least until the end of the final 9-minute Straight Jacket Fitting. There are many standouts including opener Obscenery, Emotion Sickness, Paper Machete, Carnavoyeur, Sicily, and Negative Space, all turbulent emotion, clever, oddball wordplay and when soaked in with a few listens, heavy rock at its best. Out on Matador Records
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