Of Mice & Men have spent the years since the departure of frontman Austin Carlile in 2016 not gamely soldiering on, but actually making some of the best and most interesting music of their career. Perhaps not to the same level of applause, but with bassist Aaron Pauley up front on the mic, they’ve expanded both the aggression and the big moments of Linkin Park‑y melody that form the base of their sound far beyond what they might have been doing. Defy from 2018 was a raging declaration they weren’t going down easy, the following year’s EARTHANDSKY recalibrated just how heavy they could be, and 2021’s Echo, built of three EPs and thus breaking the traditional ebb and flow of a record, had enough moments of creative fancy to keep curiosity up so far in. ...