After a four-year hiatus since Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons, Blonde Redhead has re-entered the music world with Misery is a Butterfly and will bring their avant-garde rock to the Paradise Rock Club Friday.

Expect the live performance to differ from the album – “a little more groovy,” said drummer Simone Pace. He called the tour a work in progress, as the trio is still trying to figure out what works best in a live setting.

Blonde Redhead is not traveling with an orchestra, so much of the strings’ delicate effect will be lost. But the songs will still hold up because of their intricate musical design, which is a prime example of a mature band and a well-crafted album.

Together since the early ’90s, Italian twin brothers Amadeo and Simone Pace and Kazu Makino, a Kyoto, Japan native, have evolved into an imaginative and intellectual unit.

Misery is a meticulously musical effort that is sometimes wistful and bittersweet, at other times tense and chaotic, but always with a definite purpose and direction. Simone Pace said the album’s varied feel comes from the band’s influences during the recording process – the Cure, Sigur Rós, Mum and the Rolling Stones.

He also said film scores influenced the use of layered, dissonant strings (think the Kronos Quartet times 10). The strings are sandwiched between tribal percussion, searing guitars and nasal keyboards, creating hypnotic layers of texture.

On Misery, like their other albums, Makino and Amadeo split the vocals and the songwriting.

Amadeo’s smooth, nasal tenor provides the musical antidote to Makino’s breathy, fluttering soprano.

The band has gathered their fan base primarily by word-of-mouth – an impressive feat, considering that Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons has sold more 50,000 copies in the United States alone.

“We are self-conscious,” Simone said. “We are surprised that so many people come to our shows. But people know why they want to come … they are loyal.”