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 djent-fusion, noisecore, ecologically-minded metalcore 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.
Deadguy – “Kill Fee”
“We are the freaks/And we dare to believe there is a place for us in this world.”
One of our major fixations this week was the return of Deadguy, the cult New Jersey noisecore act who just announced their first full-length release in 30 years, Near-Death Travel Services. And it’s about damn time.
“Kill Fee” is sonically ruthless, with the first half of the track fracking the mindscape with Keith Huckins and Chris “Crispy” Corvino’s famously dissonant-and-diminished chord play colliding against frantic drum beats and Tim Singer’s red-eyed screams. The song grinds down into a hellish groove akin to the most doom-dripping moments of the act’s Fixation on a Co-Worker period, which lines up nicely with the new 9-to-5-satirizing music video.
Loathe – “Gifted Every Strength”
Have you heard the news? Loathe are back, and their first single in three years, “Gifted Every Strength,” is goddamn glorious.
Way back in 2023, Loathe vocalist Kadeem France told us that his experimental metalcore band’s next album would “absolutely” be dropping in 2024. Obviously, this didn’t happen. But we’re going to glass-half-full this and suggest Christmas came early this year — in the form of a tune that breaks the sternum with its bombastically oppressive, oddly blues-ish opening djent sesh, and then eases into a wonderfully hazy and hella melodic jazz-gaze daydream.
We’ve listened to this a million times already, and it’s a gift that keeps on giving
Primus – “Little Lord Fentanyl” Feat. Maynard James Keenan
After having given “Little Lord Fentanyl” its live debut last week on the Sessanta V2.0 tour, Primus and Maynard James Keenan gifted the rest of the world a studio version of their super screwy alt-funk collab.
Bass wiz Les Claypool pops off some classic, Pork Soda-savory funk fingering across the track, though they also lord some Rush-inspired moments on us, via skeleton-shaking bursts of “Tom Sawyer”-styled synth work.
Claypool’s famously sinewy storytelling voice takes the lead on the cut, which is about the titular Lord swallowing toxic “treats,” while Keenan tools into a more supportive, melodic role.
Signs of the Swarm – “HELLMUSTFEARME”
“I am the terror/The fear/The fucking threat.”
Though there’s plenty of heavy-menace braggadocio spewing out of Signs of the Swarm’s David Simonich on the Steel City deathcore slingers’ concussive “HELLMUSTFEARME” — which teases their forthcoming To Rid Myself of Truth album — the vocalist is putting his money where his mouth is on this one. His performance is indeed one of the most wonderfully wretched displays of the week, with the guy going full rabid gargoyle with his growls and grunts — committing to the bit, he even turns to stone by the end of the video.
The rest of the band go even heavier through chaotic blasts, noise-grooved breaks and other punishing musical motifs.
Turnstile – “Birds”
If you tend to dig the more hardcore side of Turnstile’s expansive sound, then you’ll be frantically flapping your wings in appreciation for “Birds,” the third and hardest-edged preview yet from the group’s upcoming NEVER ENOUGH LP.
Though the tune begins with a tension-filled synth build-up, it ultimately soars through pedal-to-the-metal drum work and finger-blistering guitar chording, while Brendan Yates motormouths his way through moments of avian-and-arts world allegory.
The reedy vocal he brings to the breakdown kind of conjures Perry Farrell yowlin’ on a Youth Crew cut — and while we’ve come to expect the unexpected from Turnstile, that goes to show that some things are still shocking us about their ever-morphing approach.
Your Spirit Dies – “Born Forsaken”
One week on from the hope and optimism of yet another Earth Day, South Carolina metalcore faction Your Spirit Dies are here to remind us that this bright green globe of ours is still spinning itself towards an inevitable, terrifying end. And it’s all humanity’s fault.
The ecologically apocalyptic tune, taken from the band’s just-released My Gnawing Pains Will Never Rest LP, locks into a slower, mega-chugged groove than some of their more melodeath-tinted music. That dread-inducing pace pairs well with Brandon Byars’ glum-as-hell worldview (“We reject any hope for a better tomorrow”).
Even more chilling than his resignation that “there is haunting comfort in knowing the certainty of our death?” The thought that he may actually be right.