Earlier this year, the theatrically messy San Diego post-hardcore band SeeYouSpaceCowboy got together with the metalcore supergroup If I Die First to release the split EP A Sure Disaster. Next month, SeeYouSpaceCowboy will follow that EP with their sophomore LP The Romance Of Affliction. Knocked Loose guitarist Isaac Gale produced the album, and we’ve already posted first single “Misinterpreting Constellations.” The album features a couple of heavy-hitter guests, and one of those guests is Aaron Gillespie, drummer and singer for the long-running Tampa metalcore band Underoath. Gillespie is on “Intersecting Storylines To The Same Tragedy,” the song that SYSC just shared today.

SeeYouSpaceCowboy have the incredible ability to sound like a circa-2005 Hot Topic got struck by lightning, came to life, and started making music. I mean that in the best way possible; there’s real catharsis and excitement in the band’s chaotic, headlong spray of hardcore and metal and pop-punk. And even with their long song titles, the band is fully sincere. Frontwoman Connie Sgarbossa apparently almost died of an overdose after finishing the album. Sgarbossa tells Revolver:

The album is a reflection on the last couple of years of our lives. It serves as a tongue in cheek but genuine look at what it means to struggle through adversity while trying to find some beauty in it all… It’s about making art about parts of our lives that are ugly and how that seems to resonate the most with people…

What it means to be in love with someone as well as the substances that are killing you both, what it means to use sex as a way to try to feel content and loved but without a true connection that instead makes you feel more isolated. The poetic nature of writing songs about addiction only to almost die of an overdose a few weeks later. It’s a pretty coat of paint on a crumbling structure.

Listen to “Intersecting Storylines To The Same Tragedy” below.

The Romance Of Affliction is out 11/5 on Pure Noise.