Divisive

You don’t become one of the most commercially successful metal bands of all time, or a fixture of rock radio, without putting in the work; you certainly don’t stay one without evolving your band’s sound. The Chicago nu-metal outfit kick off their eighth studio LP with industrial-noise, thrash-y electronics before marching into their characteristic chugging guitars. Thematically, “Hey You” and the majority of the 10 tracks on the release are centred on modern culture—“partisan tribal warfare,” as vocalist David Draiman has put it. Frustration makes for inspiration: The release is all fist pumps and fast riffing. A few tracks nod to their 2000s alt-metal (“Bad Man”, “Love to Hate”), and the sole collaboration on the LP, “Don’t Tell Me”, has Heart’s Ann Wilson duetting with Draiman—two of rock’s more distinctive voices meeting in a glorious heavy ballad.