When Strung Out hooked up with Fat Wreck Chords in the mid-’90s, the SoCal outfit sounded unlike anybody else on the iconic punk label. Whereas NOFX and Lagwagon churned out catchy tunes soaked in irreverence, Strung Out were earnest and dark, injecting albums like Suburban Teenage Wasteland Blues and Twisted By Design with blazing riffs and technical precision informed by heavy metal. As the band have matured, so too has their sound, resulting in a string of successively nuanced records—like 2019’s Songs of Armor and Devotion—that balance all the fire and speed of their youth with reflections on society and politics.