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, beatdown hardcore, djent soundtrack contributions 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.
Counterparts – “A Martyr Left Alive”
Canadian metalcore veterans Counterparts blessed us with a whole damn surprise EP this week, but even amid the rest of their crushing new Heaven Let Them Die, there’s an especially furious and flat-out phenomenal attack coming through its opening “A Martyr Left Alive.”
It’s a bombastically-blasted piece up front, with drummer Kyle Brownlee’s palm-flesh-rending performance, in particular, linking up quite nicely with vocalist Brendan Murphy’s howling that “no sacred skin remains.”
The band summed up their latest era as “honest, harsh and without restraint,” and we’re inclined to agree.
Spy – “On the Brink”
Most any given moment, society feels like it’s about to collapse. We’re all on edge. Anxieties rarely feel quelled for more than a couple of minutes. Bay Area hardcore force Spy are tapping into that feeling with a new standalone single called “On the Brink,” which is the kind of fierce and feral pit-starter tailor-made for a cathartic, crowd-killing blackout moment.
The track hits magnificently hard with the same kind of ugly-muggin’, chromatically-damaged hardcore riffing of Spy’s Satisfaction album, but also marks the dawn of a new age, as it’s the first piece of music the band have released through new label Closed Casket Activities.
Malevolence – “Trenches”
Per Malevolence vocalist Alex Taylor, the Sheffield, U.K., beatdown crew officially dropped “the most aggressive, ignorant and direct song” they’ve ever written this week. He may have a point, with the band’s “Trenches” locking in quick with metallic-hardcore gusto, street-tough attitude and wrecking-ball beats that feel like they could knock down a couple of city-blocks-worth of buildings.
It’s likewise a keep-it-real kind of anthem, a song that praises authenticity amid a society full of status chasers, social climbers and fake smiles. Another way to put it: If you’re not fighting in the trenches with Malevolence, you might be their “fucking enemies.”
Northlane – “Welcome to the Industry”
This week found Aussie djentlemen Northlane chewing out the music biz while simultaneously crossing over into the video-game world. The band’s “Welcome to the Industry” is part of upcoming turn-based RPG game Fretless – The Wrath of Riffson, where a guitar-playing protagonist will face off against a corrupt record company, musical villains and monstrous instrument-animal hybrids.
While the band mostly kept the storyline under wraps, their new single spoils us with globe-shaking riffs and snarkily screamed-out lyrics about a label exec milking bands for all they’ve got.
Tribal Gaze – “Let His Servants Starve”
Texas death merchants Tribal Gaze ground up another gritty preview of their forthcoming split EP with Deadbody, and damn does it get nasty.
Following an ass-whipping aperitif of thrashed and trilled grotesquerie, Tribal Gaze proceed to make a meal out of caveman-simple riff structuring, pig-squeal guitar sonics and double-cannon kick-drumming.
The band’s Quintin Staunts said that their side of the split is full of “evil shit to headbang to,” and if that sounds appetizing, you won’t be going hungry any time soon.
HEALTH – “RIPPER”
HEALTH gifted everyone a hard-stomped industrial anthem over on their Patreon this week, with their “RIPPER” demo concussing us harder than most bands’ final album tracks.
“RIPPER” is a mechanically-beated, anthemically judded-out monster that oddly conjures “Sad but True” as if performed during the Rise of the Machines. Then again, vocalist Jake Duzsik gives the song a human touch through his vulnerable, distant moans.
No matter how you look at it, the tune’s an electro-organic winner from the always on-point HEALTH.