Best Albums: Relentless metal, risk-taking pop, and bluesy psych rock

This week’s best albums:

– Boston metal quartet Revocation returns with its fourth full-length — a self-titled collection that, as the name suggests, might best reflect the band’s brand of relentless thrash and technical death metal.

– Each with boundary-pushing credits a mile long, wife-and-husband tag-team Carla Kihlstedt and Matthias Bossi (Sleepytime Gorilla Museum) create a collection of omnivorous, risk-taking pop as Rabbit Rabbit.

Black Moth Super Rainbow’s Tom “Tobacco” Fec and MC Zackey Force Funk collaborate for synth-pop weirdness and rap/funk leanings as Demon Queen.

– As Old Baby, Young Widows guitarist Evan Patterson unites with the folksy baritone of Jonathan Glen Wood (plus members of Slint, Shipping News, and Phantom Family Halo) to deliver heaving rhythms, reverberated tones, and bluesy psych-rock swagger.

Honorable mentions

The Civil Wars: s/t (Sensibility / Columbia)

Explosions in the Sky & David Wingo: Prince Avalanche soundtrack (Temporary Residence)

Volto!: Incitare (Fantasy / Concord)