Vaux

When you first listen to Vaux’s major-label debut, Beyond Virtue, Beyond Vice, it sounds like little has changed from the smarter-than-most melodic metalcore of the act’s last effort, Plague Music. Then “Need to Get By” kicks in with its “Paranoid Android” vocals, soft-loud dynamics and volatile trajectory, and things just get better from there. Tracks such as “A Simple Man” and “Never Better” attack and retreat with thunderous bass work, gated drums and Quentin Smith’s heavily processed, doing-my-best-Thom-Yorke vocals. At just the right moments, a threatening and fragile piano chimes in, increasing the tension. Unquestionably, Vaux is at the top of its game on Beyond, but the real star of the show is producer Jacknife Lee. Best known for some truly brilliant mash-ups, Lee digs into Nigel Godrich’s bag of tricks to produce a layered, complex and decidedly British record, with taut melodies and crisp instrumentation. Pushing beyond genre limitations, Vaux has produced a career-defining work.