Don Broco went into making their fifth album with one simple manifesto: to make it their heaviest album yet. The Bedford quartet have been one of the biggest breakthrough rock bands of the late 2010s and early 2020s, becoming main-stage fixtures at festivals such as Download and Reading & Leeds, and headlining venues as big as Alexandra Palace and Wembley Arena. They’ve never sounded as devastatingly hard-hitting as they do on Nightmare Tripping though. As far as that manifesto goes, it’s a case of mission accomplished. These are themes that require a suitably feisty backing, songs that find frontman and lyricist Rob Damiani taking stock of where they’re at in their lives, exploring the stark reality of the world around them and emerging with the conclusion that things might have been better before. As the searing riff that kicks nu-metal-tinged opener “Cellophane” into life demonstrates, there was only one thing for it. From there, Nightmare Tripping is a heady rush of expansive rock brutalism and barbed metal grooves, a huge, indelible chorus always emerging out of the frenzy. They have brought some friends old and new along for the ride, too, with Architects frontman Sam Carter adding a trademark snarl to the defiant stomp of “True Believers” and Nickelback pair Chad Kroeger and Ryan Peake guesting on the panoramic title track. It is certainly the heaviest Don Broco album yet—it might also be their best.