If you’re looking for the funny Danny Brown of “Lie4,” “Adderall Admiral” or “Blunt After Blunt,” you won’t find him on Atrocity Exhibition. The Detroit MC’s fourth album zeroes in on unfiltered ghetto realism and harrowing drug-abuse narratives. Traditionally, Brown albums are split into a “party” half and a “real” half. Not this one: Atrocity Exhibition is a headfirst dive into the abyss.

Brown’s drug narratives have staled somewhat after four albums of self-destruction, and it’s not as shocking as it was on his 2011 breakthrough XXX to hear him rap about guzzling substances and foretelling his own death. But he still finds ways to surprise, as on opener “The Downward Spiral,” in which he raps about seeing ghosts and suddenly yelps “Oh, shit!” as if turning around to see Freddy Krueger standing behind him. Ditto on “Get Hi,” which parodies good-vibe stoner rap to elaborate on Brown’s self-medication (and is that a Julianna Barwick sample?).

But for the most part, he’s better at hood violence narratives, like the quietly devastating “From The Ground” and the shrieking, paranoid “When It Rain.” If “Today” is any indication, Brown is still traumatized by the incident he recounted on Old highlight “Wonderbread” where he was mugged as a child for a loaf of bread (“Cause for a little bit of crumbs, they’ll pop you nigga”). Atrocity Exhibition is bleak stuff, and the only real banger is the deliberate rap-gasm “Really Doe,” which features two of Top Dawg’s three biggest MCs and a show-stealing Earl Sweatshirt.

Punks and indie rockers might recognize the album’s title from a Joy Division song. Brown, a self-proclaimed “hipster by heart,” has always had post-punk in his blood; he cited Joy Division as an influence as far back as XXX, whose “Adderall Admiral” flipped a sample from ‘80s art punks This Heat. That song was produced by Britain’s Paul White, who’s responsible for the bulk of Atrocity Exhibition’s beats. Here, he leads us on a tour through the darker corners of rock, from the bad-trip psych of “Tell Me What I Don’t Know” to the shambling punk of “The Downward Spiral” to the No Wave “Ain’t It Funny.” This is an unusually strong rap-rock fusion.

But unlike with his last album, Old, whose indie-star features and constant molly references felt too much like pandering, the indie-bent Atrocity Exhibition seems to stem purely from Brown’s love of the accoutrements of hipster culture. Atrocity Exhibition is stronger and more consistent than Old, though it doesn’t hit the heights of XXX and is relatively light on the rapper-gobbling bravado of his debut, The Hybrid. Don’t play it at parties — ever — but if you want to feel like you’re seeing ghosts for 45 minutes, it’s hard to go wrong with Atrocity Exhibition.

Catch Danny Brown at the WOW Hall October 8, 2016 with Maxo Kream and ZelooperZ. Doors at 8 p.m., show at 9 p.m. $26 advance, $29 door. All ages (though, for heaven’s sake, please don’t bring your toddler to a Danny Brown show).