Here at Revolver, we’re always on the hunt for new songs to bang our heads to — indeed, it’s a big part of our jobs. With that in mind, here are the tracks released this week in industrial metal, glacial gloom, classic thrash and more that have been on heavy rotation at Revolver HQ.
For your listening pleasure, we’ve also compiled the songs in an ever-evolving Spotify playlist.
Broken Focus – “Break Me Down”
Broken Focus are a new hardcore band set to issue their debut demo this coming Monday (October 6th). In a move more savvy than thrifty, they broke off a piece early via a music video for its gut-punching “Break Me Down.”
Though the track initially lurches through a grotesquely exaggerated chunk-up, the act quickly lock into a heavy, hard-stepping groove upon which vocalist Wren Rose rasps about support systems (“You gotta choose what you really wanna do/Build me up or break me down again.”)
Like the second coming of Macklemore but way more badass, the video has the band playing in the aisles of their local second-hand shop. They’re one of the store’s better finds.
HEALTH – “VIBE COP”
HEALTH recently noted that their forthcoming CONFLICT DLC album pays homage “to some of the classics of industrial metal” — and boy, they weren’t foolin’.
The menacing pound and opening thrash-chunked riffs of “VIBE COP” — which happens to feature none other than Lamb of God guitarist Willie Adler — sure seem like it was conjured by Nineties kids that grew up mainlining the oppressive sounds of Ministry’s iconic “Just One Fix.”
And just like Al Jourgensen’s Psalm 69 era, the new tune doesn’t suck eggs.
Lamb of God – “Sepsis”
Must be something in the water: This is the second case of “Sepsis” to utterly wreck us this year, following Gore.’s single of the same name.
Right at the top of this particular outbreak — Lamb of God’s first original song in three years — Randy Blythe uses a moody, Southern-preacher-like drawl to warn us of a “great unraveling” on the horizon. He’s clearly not getting meta about the state of the Virginia quintet’s newest track, though, because it is a rock-solid addition to their ever-crushing canon.
The song oozes through its intro with fiendishly filthy bass fuzz and slow-sludged beats, but then goes in for the kill with a double-time thrash section, and utterly annihilates through a noise-spiked breakdown.
Megadeth – “Tipping Point”
“I will invade your mind/Make you fear the sound.”
If you can believe it, Dave Mustaine is on-edge in the latest Megadeth single, the first from the trailblazing outfit’s forthcoming, self-titled and final LP. And sure enough, “Tipping Point” rifles into classically antagonistic sneers from the bandleader (“Push me, I’ll push you back”), while likewise showcasing a precision thrash attack of high-powered beats and a pair of balls-out gonzo solos from guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari.
Truth is, Megadeth invaded our minds long, long ago. “Tipping Point” is an ass-whipping reminder of why they’ve stayed there all these years.
Orbit Culture – “Inferna”
“The riot starts.”
These are the especially fitting cries Niklas Karlsson tees up at the top of Orbit Culutre’s just-released Death Above Life LP. And “Inferna” does indeed find the Swedish metal act going hard from the jump, it’s opening moments instantly battering down the gates with deft, brick-batted percussiveness.
That said, the chaos bleeds into an undeniably anthemic chorus — which has also whipped us into a frenzy — before opening up into synth-laden epicness. All together, it’s a great way to kick off a great new album.
Kirk Windstein – “Lord of Retribution”
While the Crowbar/Down legend dropped 10,000 tons of pressure on us with the whole of his new solo album, Ethereal Waves, “Lord of Retribution” is a morose and monstrous standout.
As you might expect from the NOLA sludge veteran, Windstein’s song lords over us with molasses-drip beats, spacious yet tower-leveling guitar work and a round of soulful, shadowy lyrical allusions to an intense darkness further tightening its grip on us.
As he puts it chillingly late into the song: “It’s all too real this time.”