Just as Mr. Hyde had Dr. Jekyll, Metric’s inner struggle between the organic and the synthetic has elevated with their new album, Synthetica. The band has seemingly mastered the art of packaging their dark, sinister theme in a rainbow-colored box, and this release proves that point dramatically. From Synthetica’s opening moment, it aims to place a daunting exclamation mark after everything they have done prior, and succeeds in doing exactly that.

Familiarity isn’t always monotonous: Powering synths cascading over politely distorted guitar leads, moments of punchy, pop-like overtone -- all of which radiating with Emily Haines’ mysteriously brilliant delivery we’ve become endeared with over the past decade. However building off that sound, Synthetica has reached a new height while at the same time descending into a somewhat darker place --something their last album, Fantasies (2009), only hinted at.

The entire album seems like it was meant to be strung together as if a single work, building up from one track to the next in a grand fashion. To be sure, this is one of the best albums released this year.

Key Tracks: “Lost Kitten”, “Speed the Collapse”, and “Youth Without Youth”

Stream the entire album below: