*** THE AFGHAN WHIGS, “Black Love”, Elektra

If Trent Reznor were into garage bands and R&B; instead of industrial rock, he might be something like Greg Dulli. In “Black Love,” the leader of this Ohio band casts himself as a tortured soul who howls his torment full-throttle in a cinematic suite of songs about deceit, obsession and fratricide.

Dulli and his band, who have been edging toward major-league status for a few years now and almost made it with 1994’s searing “Gentlemen,” set his scenarios in rich, rough storms of epic-scaled Dylan/Stones rock. The Whigs’ early Motown fixation endures, with a Stevie Wonder-like hook twanging at the core of “Going to Town.” The R&B; element also enriches “Blame,” which is stirred by swirling strings--Philly soul a la Bowie’s “1984.”

This grandeur can be gripping, but somehow the necessary catharsis eludes the Whigs. Dulli seems to fall in love with his sneer, and he starts laying on the diabolical persona pretty thick. When things become labored, they boil over into melodrama, and instead of a distinctive individual, we’re listening to just another self-conscious scourge.