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, hardcore, nu-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.
Kerry King – “Residue”
The second taste of Kerry King’s long-awaited From Hell I Rise solo album takes the tempo down quite a bit from the thrash attack of “Idle Hands,” but the Slayer co-founder has also always reveled in the slow-dread pace of something like “Residue,” not just pedal-to-the-floor whiplash.
The whole band locks into a menacing crush here — check Paul Bostaph double-kicking like a maniac, or Mark Osegueda rasping through terrorscape visions of “blood-stained crusades” — but it’s still Kerry’s show. And the King expertly fires off pure-evil hooks aplenty, ahead of a lyrical solo that naturally gets wickedly whammy-bar wonky.
Architects – “Curse”
When Architects announced that their latest single was produced by former Bring Me the Horizon keyboardist Jordan Fish, metalcore fans’ heads started spinning at the sonic possibilities of the mega-sized crossover collab. And honestly, “Curse” lives up to that heady pedigree.
The track is an outright killer that dives through a ton of different aesthetics —from drop-tuned crystallized pop hooks, to some of the girthiest, East Sussex-scented slam riffs of recent vintage. If the partnership with Fish continues like this, we gladly accept the curse.
Halo Bite – “Love Lighter”
“Love Lighter” sure taps into the “fun hardcore punk from the 518” tag Albany quintet Halo Bite gave themselves. The band’s latest single — the first to preview their upcoming Winner’s Circle EP — smashes by on cathartically crusty melodies, spider-knuckled guitar mania, and even a smooth-ass, if mega-distorted, Latin swing breakdown.
Then again, lead screamer J. Kaiser upends the pastel-pink-chain-punk aesthetic with self-disgusted wordplay and various damned-if-you-do conundrums. Either way, it was recorded at God City studios, and sounds positively massive.
Wage War – “NAIL5”
Wage War’s latest single finds them — in their words — “continuing to push the envelope in every way,” and between its mercurial synth-bending, subversively pop-inflected sing-rapping, and skin-piercing riffplay, we’ve got to agree.
In contrast to March’s radio-ready “Magnetic,” the Floridian metalcore contortionists went full-on wrecking crew with the Rammstein-level industrialized heaviness of “NAIL5,” and the second STIGMA tease seems intent on drawing blood.
“No one is safe”: Indeed.
Thursday – “Application for Release From the Dream”
None of you expected a brand-new Thursday single to come out this week either, right?
The iconic New Jersey post-hardcore troupe surprise-announced their comeback single — and first new music in 13 years — just yesterday, and put themselves in perma-repeat mode this weekend while working through arena-sized rock grandeur, inspirational gang-vocal trade-offs and a smidge of vintage screamo — all driven by the Rickliest of ceiling-cracking Geoff Rickly vocals.
It’s a one-off single for now, but the currently unsigned Thursday say there’s more music on the way.
Cane Hill – “Midnight Sun”
Though Cane Hill’s “Midnight Sun” single dropped a couple days after this week’s big eclipse, the Louisiana group’s latest gloomily anthemic stomp-out nevertheless cast an ominous shadow of its own.
Their “Sun” phases between Elijah Witt’s insinuating, auto-tuned cleans and emotionally agonized cries (“I can feel your claws dig into me”), while the rest of the band plunge into recklessly retro-futuristic Nineties heaviness and survival-mode djenting. A darkly rhythmic addition to the NOLA nu-groovers’ setlist.