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 barbaric metalcore, western experimentation, absurdist thall 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.
Atomic Rule – “Thoth-Amon”
A technical snafu kept parts of Atomic Rule’s latest EP off most streamers when it was meant to be released last week, but by Crom, we think we have a winner here.
Their Conan-coded “Thoth-Amon” (named after the adventure series’ villainously serpent-worshipping dark sorcerer) begins with a miasmic, moody swell of string ambiance before knocking tops off with its sludgecore savagery. Some of former Every Time I Die guitarist Andy Williams’ effects-mangled runs give a whiff of Converge’s “Plagues” played on 1.5x, but he and the band also flex a barbaric back-end mosh groove.
No lamentations here, we’re willingly let this one crush us, full-stop.
Zachary Baker – “Dark Horse”
Avenged Sevenfold fans have been blessed by the “blood and sweat” guitarist Zacky Vengeance poured into his new, countrified solo single, “Dark Horse.”
To be sure, his debut tune under his real name, Zachary Baker, might not be what longtime Deathbats were expecting out of Zacky. The rustic, thistle-chewing aesthetic arguably has more to do with 2010s-era stomp-clap music and Garth Brooks’ “The Thunder Rolls” than it does to metal or punk rock, but he does rip it up with a distortion-seared solo later in the piece.
Disarming and heartfelt, “Dark Horse” reveals a surprising other side to a modern heavy-music icon.
LARCɆNIA ROɆ – “LEAN”
First thing’s first: There’s nothing lean about LARCɆNIA ROɆ’s latest single. This is a bulky, brutal and beefy four minutes of deathcore intensity. Think piston-pressured power slams, pig squeals that chill you to your core, and noise-spiraling guitar lines that loop-de-loop- like a Six Flags ride gone rogue.
Vocalist Ryan Vail gets profoundly, phlegmily grotesque with his brees and growls on this conflict-forward freakout (“Lets hate and kill each other”). That said, he also serves up a bizarrely lighthearted — and readily meme-able — mid-song moment whilst leaning into a lung-depleting, Muttley-esque chuckle.
Is this the beginning of wheeze-core?
Megadeth – “Let There Be Shred”
“My fingers spontaneously combust into flames.”
The third single to arrive behind Megadeth’s forthcoming self-titled swan song is all about the licks — and, as the title implies, both Dave Mustaine and Teemu Mäntysaari are going all-out gonzo with their shred.
The song itself is dialed in with classically headbangin’, early Eighties thrash-isms. Mustaine is raspy and reflective throughout, Megadeth’s fearless leader recalling the day he was born “with a guitar in [his] hand,” and hailing the sheer volume of natural disasters his playing has invoked ever since.
Mäntysaari’s neo-classical maximalism rips, but Mustaine’s bruising and bluesy bend-work in the half-time bridge is stellar, too.
Mirar – “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man”
If there’s one thing that can be expected from Mirar, it’s that the French duo are willing to push Thall music to absurdist extremes.
Their latest single has the ultra-detuned guitar damage landing like nails noisily grating across a chalk board, or perhaps like a choir of Bodysnatchers atonally screeching into a djent-distorted ether. Then it drops down to a muted mid-section of heartbeats and string ambiance, which propulsively pumps itself back up towards an explosive finale.
They put it best: simply ridiculous.
Worm – “Blackheart”
Doomy wonders Worm shot a “gothic vampire love ballad” out of their Nercropalace this week. Despite that carnal, cemetery-creeping setup, we’re happy to report that “Blackheart” doesn’t suck.
While Worm went blast-manic with their first LP preview, Necropalace’s title track, “Blackheart” is much more of a romantically slow-rolled and mesmerizing affair. Sure, the double-kicks go hard, and screeching vocalist Phantom Slaughter is bleakly longing for a “pale kiss” to end his eternal suffering, but the screamin’ guitar solos and fantastical finale have got us all aflutter.