Brisbane, Australia's AVERSIONS CROWN is back with a vengeance with their second full-length album, "Tyrant." Recently signed to Nuclear Blast, the band's bottom-heavy, three-guitar attack and chilling atmospherics are on full display, building on their approach on their 2011 debut, "Servitude."

If the track titles had not already clued you in, the band's fascination with science fiction themes is articulated in the opening moments of "Hollow Planet," which, after a brief fade in, bursts into a frenzy of technical riffing and impossibly fast blastbeat drumming. There are a couple of moments of somewhat dull, open-note chugging, a phenomenon hardly exclusive to this one track, but the eerie melodies around it create a contrast between machine-like brutality and melody that make things work, and the band's unhinged aggression is far too sincere to ignore. Things keep on rolling with "The Glass Sentient," a fantastic track that combines the best of Technical Death Metal and Deathcore, charging frantically out of the gates before abruptly transitioning to a slower jam to close things out.

"Vectors" represents another high point for the band, with its nightmarish ambience and sinister, down-tuned riffs creating a positively devastating sonic experience. The music is consistently heavy and brutal, but the band is at their best when melodies as counterpoints are prominent features of the songs. "Hollow Planet," for example, exemplifies this perfectly, but "Avalanche," while still good, feels like it lacks the same amount of personality, as it is mostly bogged down by near-indistinguishable riffs played in the low register. In this way, it's no surprise that the album's momentum surges with the one-two punch of "Xenoforms" and the thrilling "Overseer," before coming to a head in the midsection to "Controller." The band close out strong with "Faith Collapsing," displaying an admirable amount of depth in its softer midsection that makes it one of the most, if not the, most complete songs on the album.

"Tyrant" is a striking musical display that hits with explosive force, hitting a satisfying point between brutality and technicality without sounding too mechanical or soulless. Some people will of course get stuck on genre labels, but AVERSIONS CROWN's latest effort should appeal to fans of technical extreme metal whether they like Deathcore or not.