Annisokay

A German post-hardcore outfit known for fusing caustic metalcore riffs and unyielding sonic weight with rap, screamo, and sweeping melodic hooks first surfaced in 2007. Their independently issued debut, the breakdown-heavy and guitar-centric The Lucid Dream[Er] from 2012, served as an early display of force. After signing with SPV GmbH in 2014, the group achieved commercial traction both domestically and internationally; their 2018 fourth album Arms introduced electronic textures while preserving the prior heaviness, and the hard-hitting fifth album Aurora followed in 2021.

Formed that same year in Halle an der Saale as a five-piece whose name twists a line from Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal” (“So, Annie are you ok? Are you ok, Annie?”), the band put out two demos and an EP before delivering The Lucid Dream[Er] in 2012. Radtone brought the record to Japan in 2013, after which SPV GmbH reissued it in 2014 alongside the Joey Sturgis-produced sophomore effort Enigmatic Smile. Both that album and the four-track covers EP Annie Are You Okay? charted in Germany, prompting the band’s first headlining tour. As their profile grew across Europe and the U.K., they joined the German metalcore label Arising Empire, a Nuclear Blast imprint, and prepared a fourth long-player. Arms appeared in October 2018 with screamer Dave Grunewald, guitarists Christoph Wieczorek and Norbert Rose, bassist Philipp Kretzschmar, and drummer Daniel Herrmann in the lineup. Grunewald departed amicably the next year; unclean vocalist Rudi Schwarzer took his place and made his recorded debut on Aurora.