The Will to Live

Unlike Aussie punk revivalists Frenzal Rhomb and the Living End, the Ben Coyte-fronted Day of Contempt balances melodic hooks and punk metal hysterics on The Will to Live, a powerful, promising EP. From direct, scathing rockers like "The Ghost of Tragedy" and the charged opener, "A Million Miles," this brutal quintet has earned the stamp of approval from onetime tourmates Avenged Sevenfold and Good Charlotte with good reason. Coyte's gurgled prose is as likely to crash into his bandmates' maniacal beats and crunching riffs as it is to exit past the soft piano intro of "Shattered Dreams and Broken Hearts," steering straight into the art rock melee the latter becomes. The Will to Live is alive courtesy of its unpredictability. All hail the force brought forth by the dichotomy of contagiousness and mayhem.