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 DEATHWESTERN heaviness, post-apocalyptic post-hardcore, Harajuku-core 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.
SpiritWorld – “Western Stars & the Apocalypse”
The end times are a’comin. We already knew that, going by the apocalyptic western horror tale SpiritWorld vocalist Stu Folsom has been crafting across his band’s discography thus far.
“Western Stars & the Apocalypse” comes from a forthcoming, as-yet-untitled LP, which will tie up a trilogy of SpiritWorld albums themed around a gang of Wild West bad guys facing off with a gang of demons bursting out of the netherworld.
When it comes to this expertly menacing teaser, the beats are hellaciously heavy, the guitar licks are South of Heaven-satanic, and Folsom’s bracing for death while bleeding out on a Dylan-esque “desolation row.” In other words: we’re eagerly anticipating the rest of the gruesome conclusion.
HANABIE. – “Ito Okashi My Type”
Harajuku-core continues to reign supreme on HANABIE.’s newly-released Bucchigiri Tokyo EP, which received an extra bump this week via the new music video for penultimate smash-out “Ito Okashi My Type.”
Like most HANABIE. cuts, this one’s a hyper-multiversal freakout that flits back and forth between bone-crushing hardcore breakdowns, chipperly punky power-metal hooks, kawaii rap and other head-snapping stylistic pivots. As you could expect, it’s a frenetic whirlwind of raw ambition, and HANABIE remain 100 percent our type.
Underoath – “Generation No Surrender”
Oh, you like your music doomsday-adjacent? Post-hardcore vets Underoath likewise issued a new single this week that flirts with an apocalyptic aesthetic, yet their “Generation No Surrender” arguably lands a touch more uplifting than SpiritWorld’s bleak-and-bloody gothic-ana.
Within “Generation No Surrender” — which begins with a skin-flaying D-beat savagery but also dials in some melodic, yet quasi-industrialized moments — Spencer Chamberlain screams of a distant future where “nowhere’s safe” and the people have been abandoned by the powers that be. But rather than cower through the dark times, he posits powerfully that we rally together to “light the fuse” and forge forward towards a brighter tomorrow.
Lyrically inspirational, musically combative, and a total wrecker across the board.
Bleed from Within – “In Place of Your Halo”
To paraphrase Bleed from Within vocalist Scott Kennedy on their new “In Place of Your Halo” single, we swore we’d seen it all before, but damned if it isn’t a delightful surprise to peep the Scottish metalcore chuggers infusing the cut with a hearty burst of bagpipes.
The instrumental addition is nevertheless more caustic than traditionally Celtic, with the band otherwise brutalizing their way through “In Place of Your Halo” with veteran aggression.
It’s time to “bow down once more” for the mighty Bleed from Within.
Shadows Fall – “In the Grey”
Three years into their reunion phase, Shadows Fall have finally delivered new music. And surely, the NWOAHM faves are formally back in fine punishing form.
“In the Grey,” the band’s first song in 12 years, begins with a hurricane of melodeath scissor beats and razorwire riffage, but also needles into exorbitantly pinch-squealed breakdown and a PMA-styled hook that finds vocalist Brian Fair doing his best to escape the grey haze of depression.
They’re out of the Shadows, in a sense, and by the sounds of their comeback single, it seems like the future is only getting brighter for the long-running act.
SOM – “Give Blood”
SOM announced their forthcoming Let The Light In project this week through the transcendent, slow-crush sensitivity of lead single “Give Blood.” Its giving greatness, too.
As in the past, the group swirl hypnotizingly glacial, Hum-styled guitar layering with post-metal drum hammering — and even a slight, progressive twitch to the kick drum work — as they work through a sigh-worthy, cymbal-crashing and heartaching four-and-a-half-minute arrangement.
They gave us their “Blood,” and we’re grateful.