Two years ago, Finn Andrews was the perfect indie pin-up, all sharp cheekbones and gauche charm. Now, the face that was made to make a million Smash Hits readers sigh is fuzzy, and shadowed by a wide-brimmed hat. He looks like Bob Dylan, post-motorcycle crash: smiling but haunted.

More than just Andrews' appearance has altered since the Veils' 2004 debut, The Runaway Found. Just two months after the album's release, the band fell out and its frontman scurried home to New Zealand, only to return with a whole new lineup. To his left stands Sophia Burn, looking like a sulky Sandie Shaw, brandishing her bass. To his right, Liam Gerard plays the keyboards that are at the heart of the group's new direction.

Gone is the lilting Britpop that marked the Veils out as some of pop's most eloquent dreamers; in its place the violent, scabrous rock of Tom Waits and the subversive sermonising of Nick Cave. New album Nux Vomica takes its name from a south-east Asian tree used as a source of strychnine, and just as victims of this deadly poison suffer muscle spasms and constricted airways, the band's sound is a twitching, claustrophobic experience.

Andrews' voice is no longer that of an anguished child, but the trembling last gasp of a tormented soul. Blood and sand trickle through Not Yet, making the dreamy Lavinia sound like pedestrian pop by comparison. Bullet-like drums shoot through the darkness of Jesus for the Jugular and Pan, with Andrews' voice full of bile, his tortured shrieks reminiscent of Lennon's primal screams. But although the music is uncomfortable - and uncompromising; no jangly hit singles here - Andrews looks much more at ease with his new sound and setup. Playing his lead guitar hard and fast with a theatrical flourish, he is still the striking outsider, but he has found himself a perfect home.

· At the Electric Gardens Festival, Kent, on August 6. Box office: 0871 230 9848.