With the year creeping to a close, I'm still desperately trying to finish my personal, annual "10 best Metal albums of 2014" list for the zine. The trouble is, albums from bands like RAUNCHY keep popping up at the last minute; a little too much extra awesomeness for me to handle. "Vices.Virtues.Visions" is their new full-length and, according to vocalist Mike Semesky (the very same from THE HAARP MACHINE), is about the 7 Deadly Sins and their opposite virtues. As for the genre, I have no idea, and I don't care; I'm too busy experiencing euphoria. A frequenter of the mixing and mastering repertoire of Denmark's esteemed Metal producer, Jacob Hansen, RAUNCHY have done themselves and the fans a sweet favour by dropping this motherfucker of an album.

I suppose, convolutedly speaking in layman's terms to someone who has never heard of them before (which is, criminally, many of you), the band plays an eclectic mix of Melodic Death Metal, melodic Metalcore, Industrial and Alternative; a few pop sensibilities here and there, lest I hear even a few winks towards IMAGINE DRAGONS; this is what I think you can expect from the new album. Please, I would like to keep my head.

"Eyes Of A Storm" opens the record, and is a bit of a wild one; it has no idea where it belongs on the Metal spectrum; personification abound, yes, this album is brimming with personality. It begins with soaring, crisp atmospherics and a heavy, epic, introductory arrangement, before delving into some heaving, Melodeath riffing. The coarse vocals on display are rip-roaringly powerful, but eventually make way for excellent clean vocals, courtesy of both Jeppe and Mike, both with contrasting voices; the interaction between the two on the immense chorus is probably the song's strongest point. It sure wasn't "a true test of patience" for me, but love at first listen.

Speaking of powerful choruses, if there's something this band is an absolute genius in crafting, it is impeccable, infectious and splendid choruses, belted through soaring, clean vocal deliveries that burn into your memory. If I could barely choose standouts, I would raise your attention to "Truth Taker", which also happens to be one of the heaviest and headstrong metal tracks on the record and "Digital Dreamer", which may just take the cake as the album favourite.

"Luxuria" is a fantastic, groovy, party track, with an incredibly upbeat, and jarringly heavy arrangement of swing riffs; the fan-fucking-tastic bass tone is certainly to blame. That's another thing this band has a proclivity for: fun; copious, shameless amounts of fun, for the heavy-as-hell riffs transfer into an extremely catchy, comically-poplike chorus. "Frozen Earth" takes the music into the frigid wastelands, and is perhaps the most ostensibly 'Metal' track on the album, with aggressive, fast-paced riffage and plenty of blistering coarse vocals.

"A Discord Electric" got me interested; "Vices.Virtues.Visions" got me massively-positively excited.