Viral songs are both a blessing and a curse. For Irish singer-songwriter Hozier, his breakthrough hit “Take Me to Church” became so huge that it overshadowed the release of his self-titled debut album in 2014 – a record that felt hastily cobbled together to capitalise as much as possible on the hype from that one single.

Four years and a noticeable silence later, the 28-year-old is back, with a recently released EP, Nina Cried Power, satiating fans while they wait for his follow-up album next year.

At his first of two nights at London’s Hammersmith Apollo, the former chorister takes a step away from pop and aligns himself more closely with blues and swampy southern rock: older cuts like “Jackie and Wilson” and “Angel of Small Death & the Codeine Scene”, performed with his superb band, have been reworked to give them a gritty, Nashville edge. The arrangements are tighter, so even as he reaches the inevitable performance of “Take Me to Church”, it still feels as arresting as when it was first released.

It’s the music from the Nina EP, however, that really showcases how far he has come since that debut. “Shrike” is introduced with a wry explanation of the “butcher bird”, which impales its food on barbed wire or thorns: “It’s both beautiful and terrifying, which I thought was a good metaphor for love,” he says. The song itself plays on that idea, with stripped-back, tender work on the acoustic guitar and support act Suzanne Santo accompanying on the violin, which is in contrast to the sinister lyrics: “I was housed by your warmth / But I was transformed / By your grounded and giving / And darkening scorn.”