Oakland, California-based avant-prog sextet miRthkon return with a heaping helping of hijinks on 2013's Snack(s), their third AltrOck release following the 2009 album Vehicle and 2012 DVD (Format).

Guitarist/composer Wally Scharold and company provide candy for the eyes as well as the ears on Snack(s): Scharold's CD booklet art depicts each of the album's ten tracks as a package of junk food -- a candy bar, can of soda, bag of chips -- complete with nutrition label and ingredients listing.

Kudos to miRthkon for informing consumers about the music's saturated fat and cholesterol content; quite helpfully, the nutrition labels also provide details about each track's instrumentation and complicated time signatures.

And a close inspection of the ingredients (printed in a suitably tiny font) reveals that they are actually lyrics for the six tunes that feature vocals.

The ingenious concept might suggest empty calories, obesity, and type 2 diabetes, but no need to worry.

Snack(s) is actually quite nutritious, as miRthkon -- guitarists Scharold and Travis Andrews, reedists Carolyn Walter and Jamison Smeltz, bassist/composer Matt Lebofsky, and drummer Matthew Guggemos -- provide a healthy musical feast, not a brief sugar rush, across the album's 55 minutes.