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Code Orange’s stunning Forever laid down the gauntlet for modern hardcore bands to be more challenging while still maintaining their teeth-rattling heaviness. Orthodox defy their name, melding brutish hardcore and modern extremity with the unsettling textures and groove of early Korn and Slipknot, occasionally missing the mark on this debut but sounding compelling when they succeed. Panic is like 5FDP on steroids, complete with all the nauseating side effects, while In The Dark welds thick, metallic armour to thuggish breakdowns. If you only like King 810 when they’re heavy, then I’m Scared Of You and Dementia’s grizzly attitude and troubled introspection will more than suffice, and the self-loathing on Resent Me and the sombre title track are akin to finding a late-90s time capsule that’s more authentic than the recent nostalgia of Cane Hill. The punishing mutant metalcore of The Approach and The Taking conclude a disturbing, mental descent, but one with thrilling potential.

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'.