SINGER Nick Cave has released a new album with his long-time collaborator.

The Brighton-based musician released Carnage as a surprise release on Thursday.

Written during lockdown, Nick has described the album as “a brutal but very beautiful record embedded in a communal catastrophe".

All the lyrics on the album are written by Nick with the music produced in collaboration with his Bad Seeds bandmate, Warren Ellis.

The duo recorded the album over a period of weeks at the Soundtree studios in London.

Nick played piano, synthesiser and percussion on the record while Ellis played an array of instruments, including the viola and synthesiser, and recorded all the backing vocals.

In a statement, Warren said that making carnage was an “accelerated process of intense creativity".

The album has received rave reviews from critics, who have praised the songwriter for capturing the mood of the pandemic.

Writing for music magazine NME, Andrew Trendell described the album as is the musicians “best” since his 2013 album Push The Sky Away.

Reviewer Helen Brown, writing for The Independent said Nick takes on the character of a “traveller” in many of the album’s tracks.

She wrote: “For an album written in the pandemic’s stasis, there’s a compelling amount of travel on Carnage.

“Cave is always sing-speaking about throwing his bags in the back of cars, riding trains and having sex in motel beds.”

Nick teased the release of the album in a post on his fan-forum The Red Hand Flies.

The announcement came after the band cancelled their already rescheduled UK and European tour due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Carnage is available to stream now and physical copies of the album, on CD and vinyl, will be available on May 28th.