If patience is a virtue, Love Sex Machine might as well be saints; albeit saints with a taste for the filthiest sludge metal riffs offset by down-tempo, post-metal grooves and a fiendish sense of lyrical humour.

`Trve' is 10 long-awaited tracks of revitalised righteous indignation, wry social commentary and, of course, unspeakably disgusting heaviness.

From the outset, the album is testament to the band's decade of experience as idiosyncratic veterans of the European sludge scene.

The intervening years have seen the French four-piece trim the fat from their bones to leave only a beating heart of menacing, hypnotic riffs that steadily tunnel their way into your brain.

Whilst the band have never sounded more abrasive, there is also an intriguing, refined and undeniably pop edge to `Trve' that adds a new element to this musical confrontation in which Love Sex Machine thrive.

Atmospheric intros, extraneous refrains and eerie, instrumental outros might all be classic hallmarks of heavy music but you'll find none of that here.

Much like single `FUCKING SNAKES', most tracks on `Trve' clock in at around three minutes and feature a rush of high-octane, black metal riffs played in an unsettlingly optimistic major key, synth motifs that verge on the triumphant and, in a first for Love Sex Machine, vocal harmonies that lift the listener for a brief, beautiful moment before the next wave of groove-laden, nihilistic sludge forces you right back down to your knees.