Musical creations from Swedish brother and sister duo The Knife are always highly anticipated, and for their fourth concoction – Shaking The Habitual, released on their own label Rabid Records – this is particularly true, as it’s been seven years between drinks.

The album’s 13 tracks totalling over 90 minutes are intense and all-consuming, bookended by “A Tooth For An Eye,” and “Ready To Lose,” two tracks that ease the listener in and out of this engrossing and untiring endeavour.

These songs are considerably bouncier and brighter than the rest, utilizing tribal-sounding percussions that provide a sort of ritual departure at the album’s conclusion.

“Full Of Fire” is, as its title suggests, crammed with force, with dark progressions and heavy beats, it’s entrancing for all the senses. It is sensationally contrasted with a track like “Raging Lung,” which engages Karin Dreijer Andersson’s more drawn out cries, reminiscent of those in the duo’s unforgettable 2003 single, “Heartbeats.”

It’s an emotional, loaded album sonically, and one that Andersson has amitted is lyrically The Knife’s most politically explicit to date. Buried in the LP is a rich dialogue about sexism, racism, environmentalism, and socialism, amongst other impassioned subjects.

But it’s “Old Dreams Waiting To Be Realized”, the longest track on the album at 19 minutes, which is in every way the most epic.

There are long periods of droning, then rumbles, unnerving shuffles, something disturbingly suggestive of stifled screams, and the eventual descent into another very dark and disturbing growl.

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It’s addictive in the vein of a horror film, where you know the worst is to come, but remain struck by an inability to tear yourself away. The song continues to build in anticipating anxiety, and when it finally shuts off rather acutely, there’s both relief and the immediate desire for its return.

Shaking The Habitual is a tremendous beast of an album, and an hour and half of powerful hums, screams, beats and lyrics that you’ll easily get lost in.

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