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 death metal, alt metal, groove metal 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.
Bad Omens – “Dying to Love”
Following last month’s drum-and-bass-twitched “Impose,” Bad Omens have now dropped us into a melodious pit of dark-rock despair.
There’s an even gloomier edge to “Dying to Love” than the past couple of Omens outings. A lot of that has to do with the chorus-effect-boggy guitar drones that drench the latest single. Yet Noah Sebastian also plunges listeners through existentially aimless voyages and bleak-crooned lines about a loss of self as others circle over you “waiting their turn for a taste.”
Mega-fans fervently lapped up every second “Dying to Love” up — maybe most of all it’s screamed breakdown, marking a return to metalcore-styled heaviness.
HEAVENSGATE -“A FAWN FLAYED”
Outside of a second or two of gently reverberated guitar ambiance — albeit ahead of a crushing finale — “A FAWN FLAYED” plays out as a hella heavy metalcore hymn that’ll ring through your teeth, to the point of shattering. And yet, HEAVENSGATE still leave us smiling.
The Australian heavy-hitters’ newly released A Heart is a Heavy Burden EP is full of these kinds of foundations-shaking moments. And while the front end of this track leans into a concussive bluntness, the dark-melodied conclusion — punched up with sandpaper crooning — might be its most damaging blow.
Poppy – “Unravel”
Per the chorus of Poppy’s latest single — her first original solo material since last year’s Negative Spaces — the artist has spent some time “tangled in the thorns of a doubt.” No question about this, though, we love the sound of this latest song.
Another collaboration with producer (and Bring Me the Horizon alum) Jordan Fish, “Unravel” unfurls a lush backdrop of filter-effected breakbeats, deep-oscillated synth-bass and booming, heart-swelling chorus hooks.
Poppy sings softly at first, but rips through the skies with a powerful roar by song’s end.
Puscifer – “Self Evident”
“Your presence party-poops the entire room.”
Puscifer previewed the songs of their forthcoming Normal Isn’t album for a lucky few last summer. This week, the band more-widely unveiled its hyper-critical first single, “Self Evident,” a dark-rumbled and fuzz-borne missive against an idiot prone to sucking the air out of the party.
It’s an acerbic takedown, yet Maynard Jame Keenan and Carina Round glide melodiously through their barbs at a migraine-inducing social nuisance. Extra points for a well-placed, exquisitely Cornholio-esque use of the word “bunghole.”
Soulfly – “No Pain = No Power”
Max Cavalera is full of fighting spirit.
After piledriving us into the concrete last week with Cavalera Conspiracy’s Street Fighter song, his Soulfly have now knuckled up with this big, bludgeoning beater. “No Pain = No Power” has Cavalera muscling through juggernaut groove-metal riffs with Fear Factory’s Dino Cazares, while likewise passing the mic to Unto Others vocalist Gabriel Franco and No Warning/GUV leader Ben Cook.
The video was also partially filmed at an MMA gym, begging the question: How many of you would be willing to brave the Octagon against the mighty Soulfly?
Walking Wounded – “Bend the Knee”
Walking Wounded just issued two new tracks for a flexi-disc release, yet there’s steel-reinforced heft to the Cleveland-based death-metal practitioners’ punishing mini-release.
“Bend the Knee,” in particular, jackhammers into old-school oppressive drum mania and cement-mixer trill riffs, this classic combo oddly enough cementing an aesthetic of uncapitulating sonic fortitude.
Noah Hardesty howls of angels weeping in the song. We’re asking those cherubs to pass the tissues, because the monstrous “Bend the Knee” is bringing a tear to our eyes, too.