Hierophants’ debut full length, Parallax Error (Goner Records/Aarght Records), views the future as shattered, reassembled remnants of the past—Ballard by way of The Fall viewed through Godard. Just as their namesake interpreted arcane mysteries, the Australian band finds something sacred in melting plastic and a looming cloud of depression.

The record hums with a nervousness and an isolation. A feeling persists throughout the album that the time and the people depicted are not quite where they seem to be. It is suffused with the cold-sweat terror of crossing into adulthood where perception diverges and priorities shift. “Conspiracy Theory” cuts to the anxiety at the heart of the record. An oblique story spins about realizing a friend might not agree with the narrator in seeing the world as a strange, fascinating place, and it portrays the betrayal and loneliness that come with being dismissed. The flattened vocals are given extra weight on melancholic lines like, “And if you still believe what others choose to concede, the two events were one and the same.” An infectious, circular guitar part cut through by blue flame leads that shake clouds of fuzz off them like soot holds this riveting vignette of a ballad down.

“Think” also follows that isolation and rage, but fuses it with a deliberate stomp from the rhythm section, a keyboard part, and a guitar that conjures Radio Birdman. The carnival keyboards and low-slung guitar on “Fall” alternately mock, nudge, and embrace the yelping, desperate vocal and verses like, “I have the urge to inform everybody, make it my duty to let them all know what’s going on.” “Nervous Tic,” with its Ramones-like chorus of “I’m not doing so well. Everyone can tell,” winks at the mood on the rest of the record, letting steam release.

There are enough angular grooves to almost make this a punky dance record, with drumming that uses an inspired swing slipped between hard rolls and rough edges. “Stress” uses a well-trod Chuck Berry riff, drying it out until it almost cracks apart, and lets the wheezing keys melt over it as the rhythm section lines up for a jittery hipshake. “Baine Maine” piles hook upon overlapping hook until it feels in danger of falling over only to find a new balance. “321” uses pure static as rhythm on the verses and explodes into a frenetic, sexual throb. In a scene already rife with exciting rock & roll like Deaf Wish, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, UV Race, and Ausmuteants (with whom they share members), Hierophants reach for the top of the pack with their first record.