Where 2015’s Pagans in Vegas pushed Metric’s nu-school New Wave toward full-on electronic immersion, Art of Doubt finds the Toronto synth-rockers warding off the seven-album itch by channelling the scrappy underdog attitude that fuelled their mid-2000s breakthrough. They waste no time announcing their dramatic change in course: With the amplifier hum and distorted guitar riff that opens “Dark Saturday,” they tee up a street-prowling anthem that hits you like an elbow in the ribs. That frenetic energy courses through the record, propelling the band to brasher extremes. Singer Emily Haines has always boasted an acid tongue, but we’ve never heard her unleash the sort of startling, echo-drenched screams that send the tense title track into overdrive. And even when they can’t resist the allure of flashing-neon grooves—as on “Now or Never Now”—Metric display a flair for slow-building drama and ecstatic electro-disco release that recalls New Order in their prime.