Formed in 2010 Man With a Mission are a group which fuse rock, rap, and dance to create a distinctive and rather hyperactive sound. Or if you believe the bio on their website a part human – part wolf hybrid with superior strength and intelligence created by a guitar playing biologist Dr. Jimi Hendrix, who were imprisoned in an ice cap until global warming freed them in 2010.

Chasing the Horizon (Century Media) is MWAM’s fifth album and it continues their high tempo mix of rock, rap and dance. I know it may sound off-putting and nauseatingly close to nu metal but after you get over the initial shock it is actually quite charming. The big numbers are the best, like the electronic urgency of ‘2045’ or the insanely catchy ‘Freak It’, the latter of which features the Ska and Jazz group Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra and has been circling round my head for weeks. ‘Hey Now’ is another earworm of a song, a pulsating EDM beat in the verses give way to a huge, infectious chorus – with both singing and rapping added to the mix.

They do have slower, more sentimental moments with the best of this bunch being the radio-friendly, half Japanese and half English ‘Winding Road’ – with its sweeping power chords and emotional heft. Alas the rest of this bunch is where the albums momentum stalls, the title track aims high but achieves mediocrity so to does the emotive rocker ‘Find You’, and the sweeping ballad that is ‘Sleepwalker’; mawkish moments like this reminiscent of everyone’s favourite punchline (Nickelback withstanding) Creed.

Fortunately, these are few and far between and nestled towards the end of the albums, songs like ‘Break the Contradiction’ and ‘Dead End in Tokyo’ perk things back up again, energetic tracks with massive hooks and propulsive beats. I may be late to the party but Man With a Mission are an absolute riot with Chasing the Horizon providing riffs, raps and hooks aplenty.

8.0/10

THOMAS THROWER