Balcony Man,the final track onCarnage,embodies the raw,improvised mood that spans the album as Cave sings,“What am I to believe? I’m the balcony man,Where everything is ordinary until it is not.” Delicate piano and sparse string accompaniment add weight to Cave’s voice,much the same way last year’s pared-back solo performance at London’s Alexandra Palace shone a light on his lyrics.

Ellis joined the Bad Seeds after playing violin parts on 1994’sLet Love In,and has collaborated with Cave on numerous film scores since first working together on John Hillcoat’s 2005 filmThe Proposition,which Cave also scripted.

Carnage has a vast,cinematic quality right from its opening track,Hand of God,where Cave and Ellis strip away more familiar guitars and drums in favour of a pulsing,electronic beat and orchestral arrangements. It’s a shift in direction and mood they teased on the Bad Seeds’ most recent album,Ghosteen,and develop even further here.

“MakingCarnage was an accelerated process of intense creativity,” Ellis says. “The eight songs were there in one form or another within the first two-and-a-half days and then it was,‘let’s just make a record!’ There was nothing too premeditated about it.”

Almost three decades since they first started working together,Cave and Ellis seem more determined than ever to be “taking risks and letting whatever happens,happen,” as Ellis said on the eve of the release ofCarnage.

Having also formed Grinderman together - the rock band Cave referred to as “the best mid-life crisis a man could have” - Ellis and Cave have proven their enormous versatility. Next up,they’ll be hoping to get the Bad Seeds back on the road as soon as it’s safe to tour again.

“When the pandemic first hit and we had to postpone the[Bad Seeds] European tour I was given the opportunity to take stock,and to see what I actually wanted to do with my life,” Cave wrote forThe Red Hand Files in December. “Well,I took stock,I took a year’s stock. I came to the conclusion that what I most wanted to do in life was to play live. I truly miss it.”

Carnage may be the surprise outcome of Cave being forced off stage,but it’s further proof of the creative force that’s possible when he ends up in a studio with Ellis.