Celan - Halo

This was an ambitious project from the off: Ari Benjamin Meyers of legendary Germans Einstürzende Neubauten and Chris Spencer of red-throated New York riff machine Unsane don't make obvious bedfellows. Yet Celan, the resultant offspring of the aforementioned unlikely coupling, is a handsome and intelligent child - if a bit grumpy. With a line-up completed by members of flu.ID and Oxbow, there is an obvious bias towards the furiously heavy rock side of the relationship, but Meyers' contributions are strong and consistently beneficial to the album as a whole, with some stark atmospherics and unnerving piano working particularly well on Sinking. Meanwhile, Spencer's earnest vocals bring the kind of rasping sincerity that's yet to be successfully mimicked, and almost every track provokes head-nodding of the most righteous kind. Ultimately, however, there's no hiding the fact that this is almost an Unsane record - albeit a very good one - with a twist.