So this is what the voice of Karnivool does on his days off: produce emotive, streamlined alternative rock and it’s so contagious and memorable it should be under quarantine, but despite resonating with a larger mainstream audience (well, in Austrailia anyway), it somehow feels more organic than Karnivool are. The explosive first half of If This Ship Sinks is a surprisingly heavy yet radio-friendly rush down a highway, then the vehicle crashes and the second half is a piano-charged ascension to the stars, which accompanied with violins is actually fairly moving. Karnivool seem more like the brains in Ian Kenny’s world, but then that makes this self-titled album and the rest of Birds Of Tokyo’s work his thoughts, emotions and feelings and it’s pretty damn enduring.

Never before have a crude or low-brow humour band impressed me with their musicianship, even before I’ve heard them speak. Enter the ridiculously named Maggot Twat, a fuel-charged metal trio who are as ridiculous looking as their namesake but more ridiculously talented than it. Kill The Bitch is borderline offensive, but between samples of a grave digger, satisfying guitar squeals and good ol’ fashioned thrash style technicality in the instrumentation, it becomes enjoyable for the right reasons, instead of the outrage-spurring misogynism it could just as easily attract. 8 Bit Apocalypse has other multiple targets in its lyrical content, luckily some of them are funnier.

Belgium’s HYQXYZ is one of the most underrated producers in the neurofunk scene, period. To be able reel off titanic, massively warping monsters of drum ‘n’ bass time and time again requires serious skill, which HYQXYZ has in abundance. Whilst both Titans and Triangulation are staggeringly visceral tracks, The Beginning will be entering my DJ set for illustrating the need for atmosphere and a sense of presence, before attempting to destroy everything in sight, with a giant heat ray.

When you name a band, you make it count. In the essence of Kowloon Walled City, they did just that. Crushingly heavy, dense metal surrounds and bombards your senses, but with an inner emotion and melancholy, not too similar from the abandonment of the actual place in Hong Kong. Whilst the city was demolished, and most of your speakers and headphones will be in the sheer musical devastation on display, the legacy of its unadulterated filth and sludge remains in living memory, and in this music. Who says that music can’t give you history lessons? Annandale from Gambling On The Richter Scale is just one such insight into a dark corner of humanity, and it’s staggeringly brilliant.

*side note: I do not endorse what the Triads did there, but what I do endorse is these guys’ Bandcamp as they’re giving away digital copies of their albums for free. Go get.

Although now defunct because of domestic violence, Riverdales was a side-project of punk legends Screeching Weasel, blending the garage roots of the punk of past with the dementia-inducing vibe of psychobilly and a little of that ol’ good time rock ‘n’ roll. Time Chaser, effectively true to its name sake, harks back to that jukebox diner period, complete with embroidered infectious patches onto the classic denim of swinging grooves and soulful serenades, something that their final album Tarantula is filled to the brim with.