“Goblin” is far darker, denser and chewier than its predecessor, and it makes barely any concessions to Tyler’s raised profile, whether it’s the manic horror-film churn of “Yonkers,” the furious hailstorm percussion on “Golden” or the dark-alley menace of “Tron Cat.” He’s a more confident and intricate rapper than before and, if possible, an even more absurd one. “I slipped myself some pink Xannies/and danced around the house in all-over-print panties,” he raps on “Yonkers.” There are at least a couple of unkind references to Taylor Swift on the album, and on “Sandwitches” he acts out the rage of someone who’s always been denied stability: “Let’s buy guns and kill those kids with dads and moms.”

Many of his most troubling lyrics are done no favors by transcription. “Victim, victim, honey you’re my fifth one,” he raps sweetly on “Tron Cat,” while a chorus of “la” softens the blow behind him. “Rape a pregnant bitch and tell my friends I had a threesome.” Again: Report of literal desire? Goof of misguided kid? Does it matter?

His mother, for one, doesn’t mind the tenor of the songs, Tyler said. “She looks past that. She just sees her son onstage enjoying his life after the circumstances that he’s had in the past couple of years, been depressed because he hasn’t had a” — here, that enthusiastic word again — “bed to sleep in or couldn’t eat that night.”

Like “Bastard” “Goblin” is linked together with interludes in which Tyler discusses his problems with a therapist, which he plays himself. “I don’t have a therapist, so I use me as my own therapist when I’m making the music,” he said.

The last time that Tyler had a therapist of any sort, he said, was in fifth grade. “I made lists of who I wanted to torture and kill in the class. I was a really smart kid, so they didn’t understand. We had a GATE program” — gifted and talented enrichment — “there was seven kids in there, and I was one of them, it was just such a contradiction.”