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 occult rock, djent-core, gloom-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.
Ghost – “Satanized”
A newfound spirit courses through Ghost’s first rapturously anthemic SKELETÁ single — the occult outfit’s jubilantly-swung, near-Eighties-pop-metal-ish anthem is, of course, about a “demonic possession unlike any before.”
But there’s a meta bent to the whole thing, too, considering the track also marks the debut of the band’s latest frontman of the cloth, Papa V Perpetua. His downright heavenly coos on “Satanized,” not to mention one nameless ghoul’s truly skies-ascending shred solo, make it all too easy to give in to Ghost’s awe-inspiring new era.
Spiritbox – “Black Rainbow”
Spiritbox’s staggering Tsunami Sea album undulates between extremes the whole way through — the sophomore full-length features some of the band’s tech-djentiest riff work yet, but likewise hones a more profoundly anthemic and extra-electronics-twitched approach to detuned pop-rock.
“Black Rainbow” sits on the darker side of that spectrum. Courtney LaPlante explores an “infrared paradise” through both unsettlingly Transformers-like vocal layering and her famously furious scream. Guitarist Mike Stringer rides a riptide of unease, his lines cresting from compound-battered savagery towards a streamlined but wildly seasick guitar solo.
Riffing on the mid-song mantra (“Dissolve, displace, rejoice, repeat”), it’s one of many Tsunami Sea songs we’ll be listening to again and again.
The Pretty Wild – “Button Eyes”
Sin City sister duo the Pretty Wild had a pretty busy week. First, they dropped into a rustically tuneful cover of Metallica’s “The Unforgiven” alongside fellow Sumerian signees Kittie and Diamante. But then they stepped out on their own with their latest single, the “demonized” and demonstrably hooky “Button Eyes.”
The group’s Jyl and Jules fit the song with Evanescence-like nu-rock melodicism and haunted-house harpsichord. There’s kind of an Annabelle-meets-The–Exorcist vibe to the narrative, with the pair singing, screaming and la-la-la-ing their way through a relationship-skewering set of lyrics about dollhouse beds and an emerging “demon at rest.”
Long story short: These “Eyes” are good on the ears.
Thornhill – “TONGUES”
Australian foursome Thornhill explained this week that their new “TONGUES” single, which will eventually be attached to their forthcoming full-length, BODIES, is about their relationship with heavy music and “the push and pull between being consumed by it or resisting its grip.”
Turns out they’re giving in to the heaviness, and we’re all reaping the rewards.
The band’s nu-styled single flexes myriad elastic-snap guitar hooks, while vocalist Jacob Charlton ping-pongs between a Chino Moreno-esque moan and fight-or-flight-mode screams about being led astray towards a dangerous force. It could be the soundtrack of their undoing, but we’re following Thornhill right into the chaos.
Glare – “Nü Burn”
It’s kind of wild that Glare kick off their latest single with a soft-and-gauzy vocal request to “turn off the sound,” because that’s not happening any time soon. This one’s too good to quit just yet.
Grooving within the same distortion-warm wheelhouse as fellow Lonestate post-gazers Narrow Head, the Texan outfit’s latest preview from their upcoming Sunset Funeral is a tonally rich, effects-warped track that hits like a quadruple shot of Sunny D and Codeine on a bright summer’s day.
This is all to say, it’s time to feel their “Burn.”
Gridiron – “Mascot”
Pure poetry in punishing motion, Gridiron — the rapcore supergroup featuring members of Never Ending Game, Scarab, Simulakra and more — are 100 percent on the attack with their latest track, which previews their newly-announced Poetry From Pain album.
It’s a tune that takes on a groove-forward feel from the classic rap-metal era, though the guitar riffs pinch-and-squeal their way out the speakers like someone just flipped a “South of Heaven” sample.
As for the lyrics, Matt Karll is foisting threats a-plenty onto the “scattering roaches” in his crosshairs. He also gets a George Constanza-worthy jibe in when he calls someone the “employee of the month at the bitch store.”
Turns out Karll likes his zingers spicy.