Challenger

The Dallas metalcore quintet Memphis May Fire’s third studio album boats the band’s best songs to date. The opening cut, “Without Walls,” is less than two minutes, dropping the band outside of its safety zone with conceptual background sounds like church bells. This ushers in a thunderous musical attack as gang vocals chant “This is who we are/These are the roads we’ve paved.” But it’s “Alive in the Lights” that truly sets the tone, with a relentless onslaught of punching rhythms and Matty Mullins yelling a blood-spitting performance against Kellen McGregor’s androgynous backing vocals. It’s easy to understand why the band chose “Prove Me Right” for its first single—it rocks on a catchy riff before Mullins’ singing seeps in, casting a net loaded with barbed melodic hooks. And rather than flip the switch between his beastly shrieks and boyish croons, he segues between the two personalities with unpredictable changes. The second single, “Vices,” puts the core back in metalcore. Asking Alexandria singer Danny Worsnop guests on “Losing Sight,” while Sleeping with Sirens’ frontman Kellin Quinn is featured in “Miles Away.”