Queens of the Stone Age: In Times New Roman . . . swagger, ambition and crashing riffs

Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme tackles songs like an old-school homme. They are mountains to be conquered, immense and perilous affairs hewn from the hardest rock. Marching drums follow the twisty paths of serpentine basslines. Guitar riffs crash like landslips while solos rise to nosebleed heights. Homme uses two vocal registers, a sternum-braced holler and a high croon, which give his singing a constant up-and-down motion. The hike to the summit involves false peaks and vertigo-inducing precipices.

This musical style has grown bigger and more demanding as his California-based band have evolved. With roots in underground stoner rock, Queens of the Stone Age are now the kind of chart-topping behemoth once prevalent in the 1970s. They have swagger and ambition, a ballsy confidence that has otherwise leached away from rock music. The aura is masculine rather than macho; a fine distinction perhaps, but critical to their not toppling over the edge into bluster and boorishness.

In Times New Roman . . . is their first album since 2017. It arrives with the usually self-assured Homme on the back foot. Just turned 50, he was successfully treated for cancer last year. He has also been embroiled in an acrimonious divorce from Brody Dalle, frontwoman for punk band The Distillers, during which each has accused the other of violence and sought restraining orders. Homme currently has temporary sole custody of their children. When marriages collapse in public, they make a heavier noise than the loudest riffs.

This challenging backdrop looms over Homme’s new songs. They go about their business obliquely, with zigzag movements and grimly punning lyrics. “Obscenery” sounds as if it’s trying to break into pomp-rock grandeur in the face of stop-start setbacks, an involving mix of bullishness and doubt. “Negative Space” huffs and puffs but doesn’t really go anywhere, a strenuous exercise in filler. “Carnavoyeur” finds Homme “hanging by a nail in this life” amid a gothic labyrinth of multi-tracked guitars. The going is trickier than in previous albums — but the summit is reached on closing track “Straight Jacket Filling”, an epic nine-minute stomp that refuses to give up.

★★★★☆

‘In Times New Roman . . .’ is released by Matador