How exciting! Bull Elephant are an ‘anonymous collective’ of musicians – I’m taking a chance on guessing they’re British, as the recordings for their self-titled album were all done at Jaime Gomez Arellano (Paradise Lost et al)’s Orgone Studios in the UK – dedicated to the telling of an utterly fantastic tale of Nazi scientists, wayward shamen and re-animated pachyderms…

At first glance you’ll be thinking this is Mekong Delta and their Music of Erich Zann all over again, but repeated immersions into the world of Bull Elephant would point to there being a bit more to this particular project. Tracks like Communion are a sort of post-metal-cum-prog-rock take on Judas Priest, with sludgy but compact rifferama topped by stratospheric vocals – and oh how I wish I could credit the throat behind this absolutely stellar performance – whilst more straightforward batterers like Construct of Chaos are less demanding of the intellect if not the neck.

And then there’s the story that Bull Elephant are telling. Apparently – and I’m not making this up, though clearly the band are – “Bull Elephant is the story of a slain African Elephant that the occultist Ahnenerbe SS attempted to bring back from the dead as a new form of battle asset. However, before re-animation could be completed it was intercepted by a mysterious witch-shaman, pursuing her own agenda and redirecting the undead creature’s purpose”.

Sound like your kind of thing? Of course it does. And even if it doesn’t you’d be mad if you didn’t give the music on this little gem of an album at least one listen. Corrupted Truth – probably Bull Elephant at their straightforward, blast-furnace best –  sounds like something Akercocke might have cooked up with in cahoots with fellow UK extremists Formicarius; The following track Reflections, on the other hand, reins in the uber aggression for the mot part in favour of a woozy stance in the verses that fails to fully disguise the latent violence that’s never far away yet still acts as an emollient to what’s gone before. And here are those Halfordesque vocals coming into earshot again…

… The whole thing has been put together superbly, whoever it is doing the singing and playing. Tracks move in and out of the consciousness seemlessly, giving the album a very cohesive feel whatever style is being employed. Equal parts beguiling, affecting, and effective, Bull Elephant is a must-listen for anyone with an ear for quirky themes and bang-on musicianship.

Bull Elephant is out on November 29th.