The tenth studio album from Hamburg-based Girls Under Glass sees the trio’s slick fusion of Goth rock and electronics reach new heights of precision. Whilst Girls Under Glass could probably write most of these anthemic riff-driven songs in their sleep, there is something about Zyklus that appears more glossy and professional than before, almost as if they’ve sniffed that they’re sitting on the cusp of breaking into the bedrooms of every mascara-soaked teen-goth in the world.

The only thing that is likely to gnaw away at their progress is when they sing in German, like on the opening In Die Einsamkeit – I find this always tends to put people off, relegating them to some sort of doomy underground purists that attract only the whoriest of industrial fans. Thankfully, Touch Me follows, with addictively tuneful guitar riffs and unswerving drumming; vocalist Volker ‘Zaphor’ Zacharias certainly revels in breathing his cooly vampiric vocals over chugging guitar-oriented belters such as this, whilst the addition of a female vocal introduces a pleasantly surprising element into the mix.

Further melancholy power tracks include Truly Living and Feuerengel, and even a couple of listenable, slow-paced emotive tracks are thrown in, Deliverance, and the particularly absorbing Under My Skin - although this mix isn’t quite as good as the one that backs the single Ohne Dich.

Yes it’s true that there a number of filler tracks thrown in on Zyklus, of which Love Is In My World pushes Girls Under Glass sound perilously towards the sort of cheap, repetitive teenage shite emblazoned by the recently disbanded Busted; they need to be careful not to dip their toes too far into the commercial pit. Nevertheless, I’m Alive closes strongly, ensuring that Zyklus ends with a fistful of decent tunes and some more-than-reasonable add-ons, at least more than most of their contemporaries are capable of.