Once again finding harmony and creating alchemy between seeming opposites, on Volta Björk is bold but thoughtful, delicate yet strong, accessible and avant. The intricacy and complexity of projects like Medúlla and Drawing Restraint 9 suggested that she might have left the more direct side of her work behind, but Volta's opening track and lead single, "Earth Intruders," puts that notion to rest: the song literally marches in, riding a bubbling, ritualistic beat courtesy of Timbaland and Konono No. 1's electric thumb-pianos. Björk howls "Turmoil! Carnage!" like incantations over the din, and after several albums' worth of beautiful whispers, it's a joy to hear her raise her voice and volume like this. "Wanderlust" follows and provides the yin to "Earth Intruders"' yang, its horns and brooding melody giving it the feel of a moodier, more contemplative version of "The Anchor Song." These two songs set the tone for the rest of Volta's pendulum-like swings between sounds and moods, all of which are tied together by found-sound and brass-driven interludes that give the impression that the album was recorded in a harbor — an apt metaphor for how ideas and collaborators come and go on this album. Timbaland's beats resurface on "Innocence," another of Volta's most potent moments; a sample of what sounds like a man getting punched in the gut underscores Björk's viewpoint that purity is something powerful, not gentle. Antony and the Johnsons' Antony Hegarty lends his velvety voice to two outstanding but very different love songs: "The Dull Flame of Desire" captures swooning romance by pairing Björk and Hegarty's voices with a slowly building tattoo courtesy of Lightning Bolt drummer Brian Chippendale; "My Juvenile," which is dedicated to Björk's son Sindri, closes Volta with a much gentler duet. Considering how much sonic and emotional territory the album spans — from the brash, anthemic "Declare Independence," which sounds a bit like Homogenic's "Pluto," to "Pneumonia" and "Vertebrae by Vertebrae," which are as elliptical and gentle as anything on Vespertine or Drawing Restraint 9 — Volta could very easily sound scattered, but this isn't the case. Instead, it finds the perfect balance between the vibrancy of her poppier work in the '90s and her experiments in the 2000s. ~ Heather Phares. Al music.

MALFEITOR, the Italian black metal band featuring bassist/vocalist M. Fabban (ABORYM), will release its second full-length album, "Incubus". The follow-up to 2007's "Unio Mystica Maxima" was recorded in part at Le Serpent Rouge Studio in Rome and contains "nine disturbing hymns of unspeakable darkness and qliphotic introspection through the Left Hand Path, and a sonic post-V.I.T.R.I.O.L. sigil filled with deadly antisaturnian chtonian vibrations," according to a press release.

No sooner does he establish his White Stripes side project, the Raconteurs, as a fully fledged band, than the restless Jack White unveils his latest project, the Dead Weather. He has already described this record as "gothic blues". Here he hooks up with Alison Mosshart, singer of Anglo-American duo the Kills. She fronts the band with White ostensibly taking a backseat by playing drums, but his influence is everywhere; from the band name to the album title, a typically wry choice of word that turns an innocuous plant into an intimation of foreboding. The Dead Weather are given continuity with White's other musical activities through bassist Jack Lawrence, a carry-over from the Raconteurs, and rounded out by multi-instrumentalist Dean Fertita. The project came together through jam sessions that followed the end of a Raconteurs tour in 2008 (on which the Kills played as support) and was recorded over 15 days at the HQ of White's Third Man label in Nashville. (The Observer)