And what a return it is -- A.D.M. is fifty minutes of the finest Snapper sounds packed into ten mean and fat songs that flow like a nightmare soundtrack. The Snapper sound is an organic noise that bypasses industrial machine styles to arrive in a place where fear is not generated by the "New World Order" but your neighbours: "Tomcat", "Small Town Secret", and "Stalker".

Each song is constructed from basic elements: shuddering beats, an organ sound that is like pure crackling electricity and metal sheets of guitar. Peter Gutteridge's voice works the pure rock'n'roll black magic of Iggy Stooge and Suicide's Alan Vega -- alternately crooning or growling at the front of the mix or a sinister whisper somewhere deep inside the song.

A.D.M.'s melodies are contrived from huge layers of harmonics -- Gutteridge playing every instrument on the record bar the swing of Snapper's trademark drumbeats which are provided by Michael Dooley.

Backing vocals offered up by Demarnia Lloyd (Mink and Cloudboy), longtime Snapper collaborator Christine Voice, and King Loser's Celia Pavlova, don't exactly make them Nick Cave murder ballad victims. The roles of Celia's 'bad girl' in "Lock and Load" and Demarnia on the title track work as eerie collaborations in Gutteridge's cloying world of lyrical menace, oozing with dark imagery of weaponry, animals and sex.

Snapper's music has been criminally under-represented on record -- since their first self-titled EP release in 1989, they have released the album Shotgun Blossom (1992) and a seven inch single Gentle Hour (1993). The hypnotic attack of every Snapper release has been greeted with acclaim, receiving rave reviews in the UK, US and NZ press and gaining a loyal following (including the likes of Stereolab and the Jesus and Mary Chain) who have been asking Flying Nun where the next Snapper record is for the past two years.

No more asking then. Here it is. A.D.M.: roaring like a motorbike ride through David Lynch's netherworld, scary music for tonight.