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 symphonic black metal, raging screamo, pig-squealing deathcore 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.
Black Label Society – “Above & Below”
To wax philosophical on the quasi-apocalyptic lyrics of Black Label Society’s “Above & Below”: If Zakk Wylde’s “unchanging purpose” in life is to bring us the riff, then indeed he and the rest of his merry Doom Crew consistently deliver big on this promise.
Found mid-way through the band’s new Engines of Demolition LP, “Above & Below” lays the groundwork with one of the record’s most fuzz-ified and Sab-tastic grooves, as Wylde yowls of insane “worlds of confusion” and flames-filled skies.
BLACK SPIKES – “AUREA”
Lithuanian prog-metal extremists BLACK SPIKES’ forthcoming Ydos album — which will be their first through Napalm Records — is said to concern the “flaws of humanity,” but damned if “AUREA” isn’t the perfect way to start their promo campaign.
Intense, elegant and experimental, the song thrusts itself between vantablack blast sections, deep-sea djenting and a hypnotically opalescent, scream-imbued drum-and-bass motif. The heady mix has got us enchanted, ready to pirouette right into the pit like the little ballerina girl from the symbolism-loaded music video.
Dimmu Borgir – “Ulvgjeld & Blodsodel”
The rise of the snakemen has begun.
It has been a long time coming, but Dimmu Borgir finally slithered their way back into our purview this week via the release of “Ulvgjeld & Blodsodel,” the epically doom-trudging first taste of the band’s upcoming album, Grand Serpent Rising — the Norwegian black-metal titans’ first album in eight years.
Shagrath’s signature screech is supported by melancholic-yet-fist-pumping riffs, church-crumbling beats, symphonic embellishments and choir-style backups. The song is said to reflect “the passing of something essential from one generation to the next,” and brings us into a heavy new era in fine style.
PRESIDENT – “Mercy”
Lest you haven’t feasted on it all week just like us, it’s high time you let your teeth sink into the latest and perhaps grooviest offering from PRESIDENT yet.
While the alt-metal outfit’s masked leader confesses through a forlorn croon that he’s some kind of emotional parasite, the direction of the energy-jolted “Mercy” has injected us with a lot of life.
Between the detuned throb of the piece and the good Prez’s passioned mewling and screaming, this is also perhaps the most Deftones-sounding song of their growing oeuvre thus far — and we ain’t complainin’.
Quiet Fear – “Retén”
Quiet Fear’s “Retén” brings the heat through something sweet. While much of the tune thrives on a fast, D-beating hardcore pace and Jonatan Patino’s incensed powerhowl, the creamy guitar chord choices elevate the mixture with screamo melodicism and a lil touch of Touché Amoré.
While we admittedly haven’t brushed up on our morse code lately, we’re pretty sure that quick-and-clippy mid-song kick-drum solo translates to “this is sick as hell.”
TORN OPEN – “THE WAY THINGS SHOULD END”
The new single from depraved New Jersey deathcore unit TORN OPEN lands like a boxcutter frantically windmilling through the jugular until all that’s left is fibrous pulp and a pool of blood. And to be clear, we are dying to get ripped apart by the rest of their upcoming Torn The Fuck Open, Vol. 2 EP.
Newly signed to Blue Grape Music, the quintet serve up a fierce attack of cement mixer blasts, aggressively ignorant slams and a ferocious line of antagonistic screams and bleghs from vocalist Sofia DeMasi. Relentless and unremorseful, and required listening.