ninehertz

Black Helium are building some body of work, arguably without the attention it deserves - but that surely can't be for long. Each of their three prior albums have been superb exercises in psychedelic rock, steadily becoming more assured from one to the next. Their fourth album, The Animals Are Coming continues that trajectory, evolving subtly, with a audible confidence that translates to this new set of great tunes.

They've changed a little you feel, across all six tracks there's more focus on the songs and the hooks than maybe before, less deep psych trips, and has a more natural feel to it that's refreshing. Not that it isn't still daubed in all the colours of heavy psychedelia. The opening Return the Curse, all twelve minutes of it, successfully reintroduce Black Helium to you, within seconds acting as a reminder for anyone needing it of how good they are. The light vocals atop serious psych drops, tinged with something heavier - tipping occasionally into doom, gives it grit and purpose. This could be of the Tee Pee and Kemodo-wave of North American heavy psych, akin to a band such as Quest for Fire.

It is spritely and playful - They Have Bodies' beat seeps into you, opens, but surprisingly goes melodic and low, building a baseline from where they can construct. This is as much indie post-punk practically and sounds gorgeous, inobtrusive but with a subtle beauty, the returning rhythm of the start a funk heartbeat that contrasts with the lethargic mood elsewhere. The album's peak is Up On a Hill, a band at ease with their being, which transfers to the listening experience, a settled vibe that never pushes too far into tripped out jam territory nor ever forgets its psychedelic impulses, you feel locked in step with the band.

There's a joy in that as you go through, never more than on this song, but ever present across The Animals Are Coming. Black Helium never fail and their subtle evolution is both fascinating and rewarding to witness.