When So Stressed started teasing its new album, Please Let Me Know, vocalist Morgan Fox provided a key statement hinting at its direction: “We wanted the last one to be cold and digital-sounding and really harsh to listen to, which I think it is. This one is pretty harsh too, but we also allowed ourselves to kind of do whatever we wanted as long as all three of us liked it and it was fun to play. Ugly noise is cool, but so is melody.”

For the Sacramento band, “the last one” was 2015’s The Unlawful Trade of Greco-Roman Art, a blast of hardcore and noise rock that pummels you with savage drums, buzzsaw guitars, and Fox’s red-faced, veins-bulging yelps and yowls. Please Let Me Know, on the other hand, differentiates itself from its predecessor within the first two minutes of the opening track, “Fur Sale.” The guitars are still buzzy but more restrained, the drums are steadier, and Fox actually sings, in his own flat and unnerving way.

About two minutes into the song, he’s screaming again, but an aesthetic shift has been established, and So Stressed packs the rest of the album with catchy riffs and clean, melodic vocals alongside its usual chaotic rumble. The end result is less hardcore/screamo and more post-hardcore meets pre-Nevermind Nirvana. So Stressed had the ugly noise part figured out, but Please Let Me Know proves they’ve got melodies, too.