In the hands of Sydney hardcore punks Hellions, punishing riffs are used to hammer home modern messages. They started at a full sprint in 2013, delivering timely pleas in songs such as “Smile”, where they implore us to tear our eyes away from our screens and engage with life, and they've ventured into anthemic prog rock with songs like the towering “Thresher”. Dynamic frontman Dre Faivre toggles between throat-shredding declarations and arena-ready howls, often within the space of one song. On 2018's “X (Mwah)”, a roiling rap-metal monster, he seizes the moment with maximum force: “I want vertiginous height and speed that just might kill me”.