Happy 20th Anniversary to Massive Attack’s third studio album Mezzanine, originally released April 20, 1998.

Certain albums demand to be listened to at a certain time. For me, Massive Attack’s Mezzanine (1998) needs to be listened to at night when the darkness and atmospherics held within can induce a mix of chills and excitement.

For a band that had grown in popularity and critical acclaim for their laid back, soulful blend of dub, electronica and hip-hop—captured to thrilling effect on their first two albums Blue Lines (1991) and Protection (1994)—Mezzanine was a decidedly darker adventure, even by trip-hop standards.

The album doesn’t start in as much as it creeps in through your stereo, invading your space with beautiful doses of menace and hypnotic grooves. Album opener “Angel” is a brooding mix of heavy, brothy bass and taught snapping beats set against dub distortion and fuzzed out guitars. Deliberately sparse, the song is a bleak reworking/reinvention of guest vocalist Horace Andy’s own song “You Are My Angel.” But whereas his 1973 original is a swaying reggae song of hope and love, this is filled with obsessive dread. Including samples from The Incredible Bongo Band’s “Bongo Rock,” the track builds in intensity before exploding in a flurry of splashy cymbals, tom fills and reverb a plenty.