Following up the excellent Sulphur English with a covers album that included arguably the worst vocal take on Purple Rain ever recorded, Virginian doomsquad Inter Arma shifted back into the good graces of critics and reviewers everywhere with their sixth full-length, New Heaven. And although the cover art is a step down in quality from previous efforts, the music on the album is just as good. It's over twenty minutes shorter in length than its predecessor, far more stripped-down in sound and blunt as the opening title track shows with a brief bit of guitar noodling before launching into a crushing assault. Instrumentally the band are as interesting as ever, taking a doom/death path and twisting it into something much more progressive and even avant-garde with plenty of odd riffing and technical drumwork. It would be a delight to listen to, like Dillinger Escape Plan covering Asphyx, were it not for the ominous atmosphere which builds suffocatingly even as the noodly guitars twist and turn, the vocalists snarling and howling almost disconnected from the music.

And although the instruments are always worth hearing (particularly, as ever, the drums for those who enjoy a good sticksman above all) the music has its own strange power that holds you back from a purely appreciative listen and instead forces you to undergo something more disturbing. The likes of Violet Seizures build into a psychedelic morass that verges on black metal at points, galloping madly into the void albeit not without melody, and doing so in a far more structured and sane way than the likes of Oranssi Pazuzu. And it differs entirely from the following Desolation's Harp in style if less so in substance, both being drum-heavy rumblers with plenty of experimental sounds and effects beneath the guitars. The latter is more melodic, indulging in lead guitar melodies and seeming a tiny bit less grim in impact, but not by much. Inter Arma are very much an experimental outfit still, with influences such as Neurosis clear in their music from the clean-sung and somewhat post-punk gone apocalyptic Gardens in the Dark alone, all building grandeur and shimmering intensity - sadly it fades out a little too early and feels like it could have gone on much longer than its four minute plus running time.

Generally, such criticisms feel like nitpicks, but they do add up to an album that's not quite as good as Sulphur English, and not just because of the lessened Morbid Angel influence! Fortunately there's plenty of goodness still, like The Children the Bombs Overlooked which is so dominated by the drums that it sounds downright skeletal on initial listens, even though there is plenty of actual music happening in the background, perhaps only becoming revealed on subsequent listens. The textural guitarwork in this piece alone is downright astonishing, lodging itself in your subconscious and becoming more apparent as the track grows from its uneasy opening into a coruscating monster. Finishing the album with a folksy piece like Forest Service Road Blues shows the sheer breadth of the band's talents off well, as does touches like the mix of harsh and clean vocals on Concrete Cliffs, between the two. As talented and unique as ever, Inter Arma continue to impress.