Rising from a side-project, these avant-rock stalwarts have come far from the mannered chamber music of their first albums. Indeed, a slim new quintet line-up has resulted in their most punk-rockin’ incarnation yet.

This approach does especially well on propulsive standout ‘I Built Myself A Metal Bird’. Building from a venomous one-note guitar riff into a polyrhythmic breakdown and a noise-laced coda, it packs a lot into six minutes. Efrim Menuck has become more comfortable with his unusual, reedy voice: once whiny and yelping, he now woozily slurs. It allows for more vocal expressiveness, differentiating his apocalyptic lyrics. Kollaps Tradixionales therefore points in an interesting new direction.

Unfortunately, SMZ’s reinvention isn’t always followed through. Unlike previous epics, ‘There Is A Light’ doesn’t justify 14 minutes. While they hint at tantalising possibilities, SMZ need to shed their previous skin to make the most of them.