UNKLE return with an LP that is not only staggering in its delivery, but is also an emotional lament for the current world at war.

Although it’s not a total war rant by-numbers, a good majority of tracks featured are very heavily indebted to the War Stories themselves, creating a paranoid, insular environment for the albums’ fourteen tracks to exist within.

The first full-length track on the album, Chemistry, is a perfect example of this. What makes it better is that there aren’t even any vocals – it’s just all about the music. As guitar and drum bound along hyperactively like an excitable dog with a stick of dynamite on its mouth, it shows the warped and mysterious world of UNKLE for all to witness.

The total breakdown of the song that could so easily be from Tool’s back catalogue is no fluke either. It’s cold and calculated down to the final contorted chord. As is the chugging steam train intro on Hold My Hand, that sounds like a ménage a trois between Kasabian, Nine Inch Nails and Goldfrapp in equal measures.

With the focus being centred on a fully working band for this venture, it’s no surprise to hear that three elements have forged together throughout this album to create some quite marvellous results.

The album was created in Palm Springs – the same area of the world that Josh Homme’s career has constantly churned out his brand of robot-rock with Queens of the Stone Age and Kyuss, and the distorted, dirty guitar sounds are brazenly slapped across this album without a care in the universe.

Obviously, no more so than when Josh lends his vocals to Restless, which could easily be an off-cut from his recent Era Vulgaris LP. It’s a dirty QOTSA mash-up with distinctly loose and drawling vocals, and the Queens vibe carries through to Keys To The Kingdom, where Gavin Clark’s voice sounds like the middle ground between Josh and Mark Lanegan.

Its final crescendo of noise at 3:30 is exhilarating enough to melt your cerebellum into lemon sherbert by itself, before the heavily influenced Massive Attack track Price You Pay gives you time to put your shattered mind back to pieces with a beautifully stirring slice of brilliance that deliberately never lifts off dramatically.

Ian Astbury’s vocals on Burn My Shadow can only be described with over 200 words, so you’re best clicking here for a synopsis, but Mayday featuring The Duke Spirit is neither really here or there. It sounds a bit like Darling, You’re Mean and Win Your Love from The Dukes’ album, but doesn’t quite get the same result.

The same autonomous beats find their way into Persons & Machinery that shows the imperfect balance between man and machine with delicate bells and pounding drums blending together, whilst Twilight featuring 3D from Massive Attack is an astounding mix of looming bass and ambience that can’t help but give you those early evening chills when you sit out under the stars.

A direct comparison to two of the final four tracks, as Morning Rage and Lawless manage to destroy nu-rave whilst combining Primal Scream and stoner rock with a pout that Mick Jagger would say was OTT. It’s a shame then that Broken sneaks in through the side entrance and back out again before you’ve even realised it was there.

The final track is fitting, as Ian Astbury returns for When Things Explode, which is a cinematic finale that would work for any melancholy blockbuster with its mortal tones and splintering, fractious ending. As the final line of “All is Forgiven” is pronounced, it’s hard to think of a more fitting feeling for the horror of modern day war.