Afghan Whigs' first album in 16 years carries on where the Ohio grunge-era rockers left off in 1998. Even minus founding guitarist Rick McCollum, the template remains that of a hard, heavy rock band playing soulful music with anguished vocals. If anything, there are even more nods to black music. Orchestral strings and Motown drum beats abound, while frontman Greg Dulli is not averse to an occasional falsetto or Prince-like wailing. Now 50, Dulli is no longer the alienated twentysomething who started the band in 1986 and ended up almost killing himself with cocaine, but still digs convincingly into the dark stuff, with lyrics about sex, vengeance, longing and self-loathing. In Lost in the Woods, he seems to stalk a lover as she visits someone else, by way of punishing himself. Dulli wears these songs like a favourite jacket, and they gradually increase in tension and widescreen melodrama. "Only trouble can save me," he yells, which seems as good a reason as any to get reacquainted with old demons.