Asylums - Alien Human Emotions (2018)

Asylums aren’t waiting for millennial redemption to find them, they’re making their own. Straight out of Essex and running at full throttle. The band have taken the challenge of the “difficult” second album and used it as a jump ramp to a higher plane. They’ve always been about massive, thrashing melodic anthems but this is, quite simply, the massivist. The band has changed fundamentally in the last two years, certainly older and potentially wiser. A project that started out as a fizzing ball of un-focused youthful energy (albeit one with great tunes) has morphed into something altogether darker and more intense. It's a slug of ice-cold Jagermeister coming after the two pints of lager and a vodka Red Bull of the debut.

“Alien Human Emotions” tackles themes of bitter sex and soured relationships which swirl over bleak analyses of a disintegrating social and political landscape. Frustrated rage writhes below the surface on every track and occasionally bursts through with a shocking intensity. But everywhere are hooks both musical and lyrical that demand repeat listens. The music seeping thru owes as much to the brooding darkness of The Cure as it does to the disjointed mind of Flaming Lips singer Wayne Coyne, both of which only add to the dark danceability of the album.

What you have to look forward to is twelve tracks of killer hooks, soaring melodies, moments of dark audio experimentalism and a social conscience worn like a high-viz jacket. Clear a space in your end-of-year lists now.