Massive Scar Era tends to describe itself as a posthardcore act. That doesn’t begin to do the group justice on 30 Years, which might be the most fascinating dark-horse record to come out of the city this year.

The team of Cherine Amr (vocals-guitar) and Nancy Mounir (violin) are doing something legitimately different. Their songs are anything but monochromatic; that’s established right off the top with “Alive”, where thrash-queen guitars are married with Mounir’s atmospheric violin and vocals that flit between menacing elegance and throat-blown rage.

“Despite My Will”, meanwhile, cannonballs from a Middle Eastern–tinted exercise in world-music exoticness to a lightning-strike metal meltdown.

If your dream concert bill includes Ofra Haza, Brand New, and Lacuna Coil, with openers Cannibal Corpse, Otep, and I Set My Friends on Fire, prepare to be thrilled.