One of those bands that you hear about occasionally but never check out for whatever reason, America’s Stinking Lizaveta has been going strong for six albums now, and latest release Sacrifice And Bliss drew me in quickly even with my cynical hat on after the last dreadful effort from Don Caballero. Instrumental Rock is a genre that only really exists to the admiration of nerdy types that prefer technicality over songwriting skills, and yet Sacrifice And Bliss manages to be both technical and have good songs. Opening track Autochthony! Autochthony! has plenty of weird effects and ominous cymbal-tapping, but it’s the moment partway through when that first odd riff comes crawling into the light that kicks the album off properly, the moment you can relax and start to enjoy the Melvins-on-acid strangeness of it all.

There’s very little to complain about, throughout the album. A Day Without A Murder goes for your throat like an especially violent Buckethead track, the brothers Papadopoulos on guitar and (electric upright) bass heading off in all sorts of crazed directions, Classic Rock to Avant-Garde, tethered to earth only by the diverse yet grounded skin-bashings of Cheshire Agusta. Zeitgeist, The Movie takes pleasure in pain, forcing you to listen as they draw you in with catchy riffing before subjecting you to squalling feedback. When I Love You soothes your ears with a slightly Country-esque set of gentle caresses, before the title track speeds the pace up a little.

None of the tracks present really Rock out, although We Will See comes close; the band are far too busy exploring their ideas down the individual paths. So if you happen to hear a Mastodon-esque progginess to A Man Without A Country, don’t sit down for the entire album expecting it all to be like that – you’ll be disappointed. Expect diversity, however, and you’ll likely enjoy this, although there are moments – Superluxation, for one – that feel a bit too much like the band showing off. The Man Needs Your Pain, conversely, is nice and Jazzy in a laid-back way. This isn’t an album that will impress many, but for what it is it’s a decent little listen. Of course, if they’d only get a vocalist they’d be one of the best Rock bands around, but I assume they’re happy where they are, and so will you be.