Each time tension seems primed to erupt, Owens opts to exhale and slouch; it’s left to his band to plot You, Forever’s emotional course.

The flare-ups and queasy violence that infused everything from the music to the grotesque cover art have been replaced by something that, while still haunting, is softer, fatigued and intimate.

But for every middling exploration, there’s at least one rousing rejoinder.

The Iceage of Beyondless sound downright unhinged.

Sonically, The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs is a match for pleasantly oppressive summer afternoons.

Space Gun is a protein-rich re-entry point from which to backtrack through the post-millennium catalog, and a bracing signal that this enduring group is just as potent in its latest iteration.

By the time “I Am Your Gun” strolls in, Up! could’ve been on for three hours or five minutes. 

It’s difficult, halfway through the denial-laden title track, to imagine the EP finding a way out of its submerged tunnel of despair or, for that matter, Assbring’s protagonist ever breaking free of her bleak identity crisis.