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Listeners hungry for Sturgill Simpson’s familiar croon better keep feasting on the old stuff — because the Kentucky songwriter’s new album trades country comfort for all-out helping of rock ‘n’ roll grime. 

On his new album “Sound & Fury,” out Friday, Simpson steps firmly away from the outlaw country sound where some once considered him a torchbearer. Instead, the ventures deep into the underbelly of fuzzy, futuristic guitar rock. 

Simpson recorded “Sound & Fury” at Michigan’s McGuire Motor Inn, working alongside bandmates Bobby Emmett, Chuck Bartels and Miles Miller. John Hill, known for his work with Portugal. The Man and Cage The Elephant, co-produced the album. 

And, if Simpson tapping into a no-nonsense dystopian soundscape wasn’t enough, Simpson teamed with leading names in anime to team the 40-minute stack of new tunes with a Netflix film of the same name. 

How’s the album sound? And what can you expect from the Netflix film? Here’s what we know about “Sound & Fury.”  

‘Sound & Fury,’ the album

Simpson’s 10-track “Sound & Fury” follows the subtle country storytelling of 2016’s “A Sailor’s Guide To Earth,” which earned the major label newcomer international acclaim — including an unexpected nomination for Album of the Year at the 2017 Grammy Awards (he’d fall to Adele, but brought home Best Country Album that year). 

As outlined in a New York Times profile earlier this month, Simpson found “Sound & Fury” by way of Nashville nonconformity, worn-down months on the road (“there was a point in 2017 where I thought I was just going to just go away,” he said) and the immobile weeks after a sinus surgery that led him to rediscover the music of his formidable years. 

In his time recovering from surgery, Simpson told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe that he turned to hip-hop, the Cars and Black Sabbath, each influencing the rip-roaring sound that boils with audacity and swagger on “Sound & Fury.” 

A cathartic output, Simpson told the Times he wanted it to hit “like a Wu-Tang record.” From the article: 

“I could’ve very easily probably made the same record five times by now and just gone right down that middle lane and played it safe, and I’d have $80 million in the bank,” Simpson said, dryly. “And I’d probably be hanging from a [expletive] rope on one of these trees over here by now, you know what I mean? So it’s not worth it.”

The result? A sonic onslaught that explores galaxies between genre. 

Simpson blurs between disco itches and gritty guitar scratches on the album. There’s the groove of instrumental opener, “Ronin;” The slick, funky flair of “A Good Look;” southern-soaked bombast with closer “Fastest Horse In Town;” and an ode to longing, reflective guitar-pop with six-minute album standout “Make Art Not Friends.” 

On the subtly spacey “Mercury In Retrograde,” Simpson sings to the dog-and-pony show that once greeted his rising success: “They come back stage and on my bus, pretending to be my friend/ Shaking hands behind grandstands, wearing the same ‘ole grin.” 

The songs come from “a weird spot,” Simpson told Lowe earlier this year — including his distaste for the industry behind the art. 

“It is a dirty toxic industry,” he said. “And I wanted to express a lot of that.” 

‘Sound & Fury,’ the film 

A 41-minute “Sound & Fury” anime epic debuts Friday via Netflix, putting colorful (and unapologetically violent) context to the album. 

Simpson, a Navy veteran once stationed in Japan, enlisted acclaimed creative Jumpei Mizusaki to direct, with “Afro Samauri” creator Takashi Okazaki serving as character designer.

The film draws blood-soaked lines between good and evil, a tension illuminated by dystopian chemicals and city-sprawling guerrilla warfare.

It took about $1.2 million to produce, the Times reported and follows “hegemonic structures, politics, corruption, greed — you know, things that usually lead to really [expletive] music,” Simpson said. 

“Sound & Fury” hits Netflix and digital and physical music stands Friday. 

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