A German post-hardcore unit with a knack for pairing caustic metalcore riffs and uncompromising sonic heft with rap, screamo, and massive melodic hooks, Annisokay emerged in 2007 with a breakdown-heavy and largely guitar-driven show of force on their independently released debut, 2012's The Lucid Dream[Er]. After inking a deal with SPV GmbH in 2014, the band found commercial success both at home and abroad, and in 2018, with the release of their fourth LP, Arms, they began adding electronic elements to their arsenal while maintaining the crushing heaviness of previous outings. Aurora, the group's hard-hitting fifth long-player, arrived in 2021.

Founded in 2007 in Halle an der Salle, the quintet, who took their name from a riff on a lyric from Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" ("So, Annie are you ok? Are you ok, Annie?"), Annisokay issued a pair of demos and an EP before dropping their full-length debut, The Lucid Dream[er], in 2012. Radtone released the album in Japan the following year, and in 2014 the group inked a deal with SPV GmbH, which reissued The Lucid Dream[Er] and released their Joey Sturgis-produced sophomore long player, Enigmatic Smile. That record, along with the four-track covers EP Annie Are You Okay?, found favor on the German charts, resulting in band's first headlining tour. With their star rising throughout Europe and the U.K., the group signed with German metalcore label and Nuclear Blast imprint Arising Empire and began work on their fourth full-length effort. The resulting Arms, which featured a lineup consisting of screamer Dave Grunewald, guitarists Christoph Wieczorek and Norbert Rose, bassist Philipp Kretzschmar, and drummer Daniel Herrmann, arrived in October 2018. Grunewald left the group amicably the following year and was replaced by new unclean vocalist Rudi Schwarzer, who made his studio debut on 2021's Aurora. ~ James Christopher Monger, Rovi