Where Joy Division derived their name from the given moniker for the prostitution wing of a Nazi concentration camp, The Black Angels, less controversially, don’t take theirs from the nickname of the SS. Instead, the psychedelic rockers borrowed from the title of a Velvet Underground song, ‘The Black Angel’s Death Song’. It’s not the only thing they appropriate from Lou Reed and co.

Featuring more drone than your average hornet’s nest, despite the departure of Jennifer Raines, erstwhile keyboardist, percussionist, and drone machinist, this sophomore album is less an album of potential singles than one long song. Reviewing one of their gigs, a critic was forced to concede that they couldn’t “recall a single song from their set”. Before moving on to rave about “the dense barrage of riffs and vocals, dripping with reverb and soaring deep to the very edges of the room”.

Politically-minded chroniclers of decay? The finest exponents of feedback since the heyday of The Jesus and Mary Chain? Take your pick.

(4/5)