Shinedown are that rare hard-rock band capable of incorporating big pop moves into their music without sacrificing any of the thunder. In fact, the Florida-bred group have only grown heavier the catchier their songs have become. “Cut the Cord”, one of the most exhilarating rock hits of 2015, drives this point home, employing riffs and a groove that are devastating precisely because they make bodies move more like a killer club track. Boasting a surreal video directed by Bill Yukich (who had previously worked with Beyoncé), the 2018 single “Devil” further fleshes out this approach, building a wall of sound from gospel choir vocals and the kind of synthesisers heard on Imagine Dragons’ unique mash-up of electro-pop and rock. The fact that these hits, novel and utterly electric, arrived well over a dozen years into their career makes them all the more impressive. When singer Brent Smith founded Shinedown in 2001, they were contemporaries of Breaking Benjamin and Nickelback, amassing a global fanbase throughout the 2000s with a rotation of grungy anthems (“Sound of Madness”), anguished power ballads (“45”) and the occasional curveball, like a surprisingly faithful rendition of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Simple Man” reflecting their Southern roots. Shinedown knew the popularity of post-grunge and alt-metal wouldn’t last forever, so they remade themselves for 2012’s Amaryllis, a record that introduces many of the bold electronic sounds that would come to full fruition on the aforementioned smashes “Cut the Cord” and “Devil”. That takes serious guts, but it’s precisely how long-term success in hard rock is achieved.