Hawthorne Heights make dystopia sound fun on their new album, "Zero."

On their fifth LP, Zero, Ohio pop-punk-screamo veterans Hawthorne Heights have concocted an elaborate album theme that runs throughout the course of the record's 15 songs. What is the theme? Well, the good news is, you can stream the whole thing now and find out. Or, you know, we could just let the band explain. Let's do both.

Listen to Hawthorne Height's Zero after the jump.

"Zero, at its core, is a story of good and evil," drummer Eron Bucciarelli explained in a release. "The setting is a dystopian future where a totalitarian corporation has risen to power in the wake of a disaster, 'The Fires.' Zero is an account of the events from the perspective of the main character in the story, 'Baker.'  The album's track listing is based upon those events."

One look at Zero's song titles makes it clear that this is going to be a dark tale indeed. Just reference "Skeletons Remain (Transmission)," "Memories of Misery," and "Taken By the Dark." Does that sound dystopian enough to you? Or maybe horror-dystopian? Whatever it is, we think we get their point.

In true Hawthorne Heights style, the lyrics are balanced out by uplifting gang-vocal pop choruses that belie the darker imagery. "With fragile lives and brittle bones we all fall down," JT Woodruff and Micah Carli sing on "Memories of Misery," but, weirdly, in the context of the song, it actually sounds like fun. "Spark" is another exuberant, high-energy track. Not to worry, however, there's still plenty of hand-wringing and screaming throughout, especially on the slower, grinding title track. This is gonna be the best apocalypse ever.

+ Listen to Hawthorne Height's Zero.

Photo credit: Compass Music