“No Consequence” and “Wishing Well,” which follows it, are thrillingly boxed productions, like they’re being played in a small room whose walls are creeping in. “In Search of Tomorrow,” though, blasts these small spaces apart without losing any of the built-up intensity. Taylor’s melody is buzzy and breathless, and she’s pulled forward by a leashed rhythm track that strains toward breakbeat. The synth pattern at the song’s core, though, is a gauzy and conventionally beautiful chord progression that, ripped out of this ferocious context, could’ve powered a minor hit in the New Romantic ’80s. While not as demanding as the EP’s heavier songs, these moments are where this new version of Youth Code feels most accomplished. The airiness of that chord progression, combined with how powerfully Taylor pushes the limits of the chorus, gives the song a bittersweet tang that is, in the proper sense of the word, sublime: hostile, powerful, and awe-inspiring.

In times of urgency, menace, and social claustrophobia, it makes sense to cling to music that is vicious and confident in the righteousness of its anger. Yours, With Malice is exactly that kind of music, obviously. Nearly every second of this EP’s 17 minutes is reactive, in that it feels like the result of provocation. You can feel an implied history tangled in the wake of the songs, scraps of ruined beauty and thwarted will clattering in the rear distance. Even the conceptual framing of EBM—dance music, but mean—implies a fallen state, a ruined party, a spiteful good time. In its frenzy and indignation, Yours, With Malice is powered by the adrenalized panic that comes in the moment between realizing you’ve been wounded and feeling the pain—a state of opportunity.