The 2a.m. Orchestra: The Last (digital outlets)

Expat Californian now resident in Auckland, multi-instrumentalist David Kelley has helmed his long-running and serious-minded “orchestra” (here mostly just him) across four previous albums.

Kelley has never lacked ambition, in fact we criticised the lyrics of the Impermanence album for being messianic.

But that is in the position he has frequently adopted and his voice certainly fits the heroic questioning and existential doubts (and certainties) he has.

This new album comes with a title which suggests the apocalyptic times many feel we are living through: are these the last days?

So there's an even more sombre mood as Kelley wrestles with the big questions. And big music.

The title track opener is a brooding, urgent rock epic which has a swirling Middle Eastern feel and change of pace to allow for a prog guitar passage building to crescendo before it all goes quiet and rebuilds. It's an impressive announcement for the album.

Kelley deals a nice line in chugging rock (the slow build of the impressive Dying Star, the strident The Cold) but can shift easily into a more acoustic framework (the weary-sounding Samsara) and a measured piano ballad Overcome (which sounds like it would open the second side of the vinyl).

City of the Dead is more post-battle dystopia (“they came so fast, you didn't stand a chance”) as Kelley continues his dark themes of doom, death, darkness and nihilism.

However his leavening of styles is one of the strengths of The Last – it feels like an “album” of the old style – so the messages aren't lost by being delivered with relentless sledge-hammer blows.

There's a lot here which will appeal to metalheads but Kelley also manages to include pop tropes (Graceless Ageing) and a degree of nuance which is often lacking in albums with such themes, which places him closer to Muse, Arcade Fire and early Radiohead.

And right at the end there's a flicker on the quieter Hold the Light: “don't stop believing”.

This may be a dark ride but Kelley is firmly in control at the wheel.

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You can hear and buy this album at bandcamp here