Do to the Beast
In the Nineties, the Afghan Whigs made grunge that had soul quake and blues menace, with frontman Greg Dulli playing the alt-rock dude reborn as unregenerate lounge cobra. The stylishly sleazy intensity is still there on their first record since 1998's excellent 1965, only with a wider palette – "Parked Outside" is gnarled sludge blues, "Algiers" coats noir desert rock in Crazy Horse noise muck, and "It Kills" is a full-on doom-gospel epic. Dulli's grizzled predatory slyness ties it together. "Surprise, surprise/I'll have you know I've come to see you die," he croons on "Lost in the Woods," which bursts into a guitar spectacle that's still worth sticking around for.