Keee-runch! There's always been a pranksterish side to L.A. molten-rockers Queens Of The Stone Age, so one feels like a bit of a killjoy sending up the following flare, but nonetheless: Keep one hand on the volume control when testing their new Songs For The Deaf opus. Such preparation could prevent visits from the police and/or your being blown out of your rec room.

Suffice to say, there is an heroic upsurge in loudness within the disc's first three minutes.

Songs For The Deaf is the ambitious sonic depth charge Queens leader Josh Homme has been threatening to drop for years, and now he comes armed with the formidable Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters) to up the ante on drums.

Rather than struggle to harness the throb of their live show, the band devote their energy to unpredictability. So, alongside the gut-rattling You Think I Ain't Worth A Dollar But I Feel Like A Millionaire and Song For The Dead, they ricochet into splashes of sludge-pop such as No One Knows and the alarmingly sweet '60s psych-out Another Love Song.

Despite the raw power of the album's first half and its undercurrent of humour, it's this newfound direction that makes it worth wrecking your ears over.

Track Listing