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Do you want a polyrhythmic panic attack? Of course you do, and Pennsylvania metalcore crew This Or The Apocalypse are just the men for the job.

Always an impressively technical outfit, there’s plenty of misanthropic fury to be found in frontman Rick Armellino’s ferocious screams and growls, and more than enough queasy glitches, barrages of skittish beats, monstrous breakdowns and leftfield, unpredictably frantic Fall Of Troy-style metal riffs on hand to rip the carpet out from under you.

It’s certainly an eye-poppingly potent performance from Rick, his pained howls suggesting a world of torment matched by the swirling musical tempest blowing around him. And while the various singers bussed in to provide cleaner vocals to allow the frontman to concentrate on his visceral bloodletting do dilute things just a little, Dead Years is still a fitting soundtrack to Armageddon.

Emma has been writing about music for 25 years, and is a regular contributor to Classic Rock, Metal Hammer, Prog and Louder. During that time her words have also appeared in publications including Kerrang!, Melody Maker, Select, The Blues Magazine and many more. She is also a professional pedant and grammar nerd and has worked as a copy editor on everything from film titles through to high-end property magazines. In her spare time, when not at gigs, you’ll find her at her local stables hanging out with a bunch of extremely characterful horses.