Blasted blues carved from a conceptual monolith that might well be 's most inflamed vision since , is the sound of at their most bruising. Sonically, it is a smorgasbord of feedback and electronics, shrieking shots and shocks of imagery that commence their assault on the opening ; dip for the contrarily hushed with its snatches of speech and conversation whispered out by a guesting ; and then implode again around the sepulchral guitars screaming like incendiary bombs while recites with almost Biblical solemnity over a carnage that is all the more effective for its unpredictability. It is arguable whether could be considered 's heaviest album, since the nightmare loops of their '80s output also sleep beneath some of 's tenderest melodies: is mournfully beautiful because of, not despite, the riffs that scythe across the cellos; is epic regardless of the absence of any obviously ear-catching embellishments; and could have been culled from almost any album, at almost any time. This is the beauty of 's constantly shifting and eternally mesmerizing vision; at his best (and this album is up there with any of it), he is not simply timeless. He eclipses time altogether. ~ Dave Thompson