David Comes to Life is an exciting, sprawling epic that combines beauty and brash noise, harmonic vocals with endless shouts. Each of the four acts is charged with an undeniable energy and focus that put Fucked Up ahead of less ambitious peers.

Where David Comes to Life falls a bit short is in its delivery. Taken as a “rock opera” with descriptive titles for its tracks and acts, the record must have a clear storyline. However, this can be difficult to untangle from the more aggressive vocals. Curious listeners or longtime fans will invest the energy to learn the plot, but for the casual audience, such nuance is lost in the cacophony.

Fans of hardcore or those who aren’t afraid of a little shouting will be able to appreciate Fucked Up’s David, who loses his lover in the midst of a war-torn English landscape only to challenge the narrator of the very story he embodies. It’s an enlightening story worth engaging in the modern day, and Fucked Up have found one hell of a way to tell it.