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 black metal, house-swerved hardcore, mythological prog 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.
Blackbraid – “Wardrums at Dawn on the Day of My Death”
The wardrums are pounding hard and heavy again, a surefire signal that indigenous black-metal solo project Blackbraid is back on the attack. And, honestly, it’s about damn time.
Sgah’gahsowáh is dialed-in and hella destructive on this latest cut, his first original song since 2023. The blast-manic drums give no quarter. A melancholic fury laces itself around each gnarly guitar trill. A roughshod, rampaging tap solo is next-level aggressive.
At one point, Sgah’gahsowáh screams that his spear has been stained by the “kiss of death,” but the first impression of his Blackbraid III is giving us life right now.
Cryptodira – “The Same River Twice”
Long Island, New York, quartet Cryptodira implore us to drink deep on their prog-metal depravity via new single “The Same River Twice,” which is but a taste of their upcoming Genesis of Error LP. To say the least, we like what we’ve sampled so far.
The sub-two-minute ass-beater drips with Converge-esque guitar squiggling, a perma-double-kickin’ Americanized D-beat pace, and hard-sung vocals alluding to Greek mythology, modern horrors and inevitable apocalypse.
It’s bleak, but still, considering how many times we’ve spun this so far, it’s fair to say we’ve drunk from this river more than twice.
Holy Wars – “I Feel Everything”
Holy Wars guitarist Nick Perez said this week that he and the rest of the L.A. band wanted to “bring the chills factor back into our music,” and in that, we can say that their new single “I Feel Everything” is a total success.
Like an ASMR video full of varying shivery triggers, the song back-and-forths itself between hair-raising nu-gritty chromaticism and a mega-yearning, anthemic rock chorus. Vocalist Kat Leon adds in-your-ear whispering, blood pressure-flaring cries and uniquely vulnerable harmonic tension to the piece.
This is all to say, Holy Wars’ latest got us right in the feels.
I Prevail – “VIOLENT NATURE”
Though I Prevail may be a man down these days, following the recent exit of clean vocalist Brian Burkheiser, the long-running post-hardcore outfit have leveled up the intensity with their appropriately-dubbed “VIOLENT NATURE.”
Scream-centric frontman Eric Vanlerberghe commands the mic with instantly antagonistic intent (“Cut your heart out/Then swallow the razor”). The rest of the band serve up lightning-licked tap sections, as well as a bruising dose of heavy riffage and concussion-gun kick-drum work.
Beyond the heavy soundtrack, the bloody and explosive sci-fi-style video imagines an all-out war between a cybernetic Phantasm orb and the Alien franchise’s deadly Engineers. Needless to say, just like the single, the results are vicious.
Jutes – “Left on Dilworth”
Jutes flirted with the darkest elements of alt-pop and Deftones-styled haziness on his 2024 full-length, Sleepyhead. As part of his two-song drop this week, the Ottawa, Ontario-raised solo artist has taken himself towards more of a hypnagogic, Sleep Token-esque direction with dour but dreamy heavy ballad “Left on Dilworth.”
The song begins with feather-soft piano work and confessional, eyebrow-raising character portraits (“I’ve done lines with the reaper”). Before long, the arrangement delivers a deep, distorted and cavernous boom, while Jutes nakedly dishes on “self-absorbed depreciation” with an impassioned falsetto.
While he croons of his lost innocence, fans of Sleep Token and Bad Omens collectively gained another sad-boi stunner for their playlists.
Turnstile – “LOOK OUT FOR ME”
All eyes have been on Turnstile throughout the spring, and the fourth magnetic preview from the hardcore-expanding Baltimore crew’s eagerly anticipated NEVER ENOUGH is only making us more excited for it.
Like some of the best Turnstile tracks before it, “LOOK OUT FOR ME” works a handful of angles. A killer bounce that conjures Orange 9mm cross-pollinating with a long-lost Audioslave anthem. Swirling typhoons of speaker-panning guitar ambiance. A surprise-swerve synth break that crests us towards the finale’s propulsive yet chill-pilled house outro.
It’s only getting weirder and wilder with Turnstile, and we’re here for it.