Indianapolis sludge-doom band Coffinworm came to immediate prominence in 2009, when their first-ever recording, the Great Bringer Of Night demo, somehow wound up getting reviewed by Decibel (among others), who gave it a 9/10 score and called it the best demo of the year. Soon afterward, the band signed with the pioneering Canadian label Profound Lore (Agalloch, YOB, Krallice), who released Coffinworm’s debut LP, When All Became None, a brutal, scathing, hallucinatory record that somehow still found room for melody and craft. That was 2010. They toured sporadically — I saw them in 2011, at the release party for Disma’s celebrated Towards The Megalith, and frankly, Coffinworm blew the guests of honor off the stage. And now, nearly four full years since the release of When All Became None, Coffinworm are set to drop their sophomore LP, IV.I.VIII. It’s the best thing I’ve heard from the band — it’s doomier, blacker, more confident, more engulfing. Like the debut, it’s produced and engineered by Sanford Parker (Twilight, Nachtmystium) who keeps the instrumentation articulate, while the sound is both spacious and suffocating. Vocalist Dave Britts has one of the most powerful, paint-peeling sludge-roars I’ve ever heard, and here, it sounds like nothing so much as the howling, inescapable void. “Lust Vs. Vengeance” is the first track to be released off IV.I.VIII; check it out and see for yourself.

IV.I.VIII is out 3/18 via Profound Lore.