So, you have $12 in your pocket, and you have to decide which of the new albums to be released Wednesday is a must-have for your already extensive CD collection.

Of course there’s the highly anticipated album by tomorrow’s superstar, Thursday, that promises to be incredible. Then there’s the new release by A Perfect Circle that, after three years in the making, is almost guaranteed not to disappoint.

And for all of the nu-metal kids out there (and I think there’s still a few of us left), L.A. rockers Rumblefish will expose a gentler side to Roadrunner Records with its debut album, Exit Highland. But allow me to recommend the first release by Story of the Year — a satisfying, alternative, underground solution to this mainstream musical menagerie.

The St. Louis natives who make up Story of the Year are exploding onto the rock scene with their debut album, Page Avenue. Page Avenue is a delicious blend of raucous guitar hooks, vociferous screams and gentle yet deeply powerful melodies. It is a vehement manifestation of rock music that is thick with emotion.

Frontman Dan Marsala delivers lyrics with a pressing urgency, but does so with a magnetic passion and sincerity. The dynamic rhythms and crashing beats that provide the prodigious substance to accompany the vocals are created by the other four members — Ryan Phillips on guitar, Josh Wills keeping the music tight on drums, Adam Russell holding it down on bass and Phil Sneed, who plays “Ye GuitFiddle” (as is amusingly written in his profile on the SOTY website).

The band’s first single, “Until The Day I Die,” is already a staple on MTV2, and deservingly so, as it presents a pleasant and representative sample of the intensity and energy that is Story of the Year. The song is one of tortured love, offering the melancholy lyrics, “Still the second hand will catch us like it always does / we’ll make the same mistakes that we always do.”

It ends on a more hopeful note, with desperate screams of committed devotion and the proclamation that, “Until the day I die / I’ll spill my heart for you.”

Another notably intriguing song on Page Avenue is “And The Hero Will Drown,” an edgier and angrier creation, incarnate of the darker, more despondent side of Story of the Year.

And to prove just how versatile and transcendent the members can be as a band, SOTY wrote “Anthem Of Our Dying Day,” a slow and somber acclamation of desolation and emptiness. “Anthem” is rich with vivid, misery-induced imagery (“The stars will cry the darkest tears tonight / from up here the city lights burn like a thousand miles of fire”) that adds an aesthetic element to the already uninhibited and enthrallingly instinctive album.

Those of us who had the awesome opportunity of being introduced to Story Of The Year at Warped Tour this summer got a taste of one of the most eye-opening aspects of the band — its wildly engaging live show. The set was one gigantic adrenaline rush that flooded over the stage and into the crowd, which was clearly hypnotized by the beautiful bedlam in front of it.

The band’s stage antics included massive guitar spins, ridiculous jumps and careless hurling of instruments to roadies at the sides of the stage. SOTY’s concert performance was explosive and hugely entertaining.

Story of the Year’s high-energy songs in combination with its spirited live show offer an innovatively refreshing package, and Page Avenue is sure to be an influential record in the modern punk-rock music scene.

So about that $12 that’s still taking up space in your pocket? Do yourselves a favor and get the new Story of the Year album. You won’t regret it.

Grade: A