After a six-year recording hiatus, Mutoid Man are back with their third full-length and most mindboggling effort yet, Mutants. Guitarist/vocalist Stephen Brodsky (Cave In, Old Man Gloom) and drummer Ben Koller (Converge, Killer Be Killed) have always excelled at crafting their own unique brand of frenzied, hyper-focused, dynamic, and deliciously excessive fretboard-savvy metal. Take two players who were raised in the hardcore world and who quickly surpassed the technical requirements for playing even the more sophisticated spins on that sound, and then make them playfully push each other into more outrageous and catchy territories, and you have a rough approximation of the Mutoid Man sound. With the addition of bassist Jeff Matz (High on Fire, Zeke) in tow, you now have a trifecta of prog-level players approaching metal with punk irreverence. But Mutants never comes across as academic noodling. Rather, the whole album radiates an exuberant and adrenalized joy.