Philly ensemble Far-Out Fangtooth’s swirling psych assault on Borrowed Time, the band’s first album for the venerable Siltbreeze label, is a soundtrack for navigating cracked sidewalks, dark alleys, and general urban decay just as the evening dose kicks in. It’s 40 minutes of dense, layered bad-trip rock designed specifically for our pending return to the Bad Old Days. Of course, it’s always the Bad Old Days in Philly, right? So it comes as no surprise that Far-Out Fangtooth are near naturals at this. The signposts aren’t hard to spot: “Green Hands” recalls SST-era Sonic Youth and there are hints of the Swans brutal pummel throughout. “Mother Nature” recalls the darker moments of ’80s Liverpool psychedelia a la Echo & the Bunnymen. But the band digests all of it and spits out something uniquely contemporary.

Although there are occasional reprieves from the morass in the form of a shimmering guitar part or a melodic vocal line, this is by and large a bleak record. Yet for all its menace and doomy overtones, there’s something ultimately very inviting about Borrowed Time. Far-Out Fangtooth has delivered a cracked vision of a decidedly cracked world. Whether one chooses to adhere to this vision and follow it to its conclusion is a matter of personal choice, but when the band demands that you “bow your head” on the album’s opener you’d be a fool not to at least listen further.