Comets On Fire have revealed that their new album, their second for Sub Pop, will be called Avatar.

The brain-crushingly heavy rock outfit - all acid-hued tones and boulder-busting riffs - have pencilled in a release date of August 7. Apparently very different to their last long-player, Blue Cathedral, Avatar sees the band adopting a mellower approach to song writing: "earthy, more accessible and downright beautiful" is what the press people are telling us.

The gears have shifted, then, but downwards. Whatever: chances are that Avatar will be one of this writer's releases of the year, if Comets' recent support set with Mudhoney is anything to go by. Like, wow.