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With so many bands peddling the same guttural vocals and menacing beatdowns, the deathcore acts that look most likely to go the distance are those who can either out-muscle the rest or can craft memorable songs. Boasting three guitarists wielding 24 strings between them, Brisbane’s Aversions Crown hit harder than most, with scything riffs and crushing drops sounding devastating on top of Colin Jeffs’ monstrous vocals.

The merciless pummelling is just one part of Tyrant’s arsenal, with the band tapping into the feral atmospheres of the best death metal to bring the nightmarish sci-fi themes of the lyrics to life with the unsettling harmonies of Hollow Planet and Faith Collapsing’s subtle electronic undertones.

Earth Steriliser evokes an alien mothership levelling continents, but it’s the deeper moods of The Glass Sentient and Overseer’s chilling dystopian vision that will mark out Aversions Crown as survivors./o:p

Rugby, Sean Bean and power ballad superfan Adam has been writing for Hammer since 2007, and has a bad habit of constructing sentences longer than most Dream Theater songs. Can usually be found cowering at the back of gigs in Bristol and Cardiff. Bruce Dickinson once called him a 'sad bastard'.