Cober THE BREAKER (SELF-RELEASED)

Even if they weren’t from the Pacific Northwest, it would be hard to ignore the furious, numbing despair and the blacker-than-black Hole of self-loathing at the core of Cober’s stormy approach. Far from being a neo-grunge platter warmed over 10 years too late, however, the Seattle duo’s second album is a bruised, bitterly elegant — and often devastating — exposition on betrayal ("Hear Lies"), emotional abandonment ("Nothing Left"), and withering regret (any number of other tunes). The surprise is how painstakingly lovely and graceful all of the blood letting sounds, from the sinewy, L7-ish riff-rocker "Red Granite" to the spangled Mazzy-Star-with-fangs swirl of the title track to the poisonous thundercloud "Wedding Song (Abacus)," which swells and builds with whisper-to-scream ferocity. The cumulative effect of this last one evokes Live Through This–era Courtney Love wailing against the foreboding backdrop of a Come dirge.

Despite the seeming stylistic shifts, Cober singer/multi-instrumentalist Sheila Bommakanti and guitarist Lelani LaGuardia maintain a sharp focus and keep a tight rein on the mood swings, and they purge their demons with wrathful precision. Best of all, they keep suffusing the atmosphere in a luscious dread as guitars probe the darkened corridors of the material with lean menace, stinging Bommakanti’s wounded words like scorpions.