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 NYHC, melodeath, old-school death 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.
Biohazard – “Forsaken”
Biohazard vocalist-bassist Evan Seinfeld says it best at the top of his band’s first new song since 2012: “Let’s fucking go!”
If you’d felt the classic NYHC band had forsaken you all these years, then the full-blown-furious return of the classic lineup delivers in a major way. Mean-mugged back-and-forth bellowing between Seinfeld and vocalist-guitarist Billy Graziadei? Check. Pit-whipping velocity and knuckle-stomping moshes? You betcha. Bobby Hambel craning himself through wah-crazed guitar solos. Is there any other way?
A new Biohazard LP is on the way soon, but we’re already excitedly two-stepping to their Brooklyn beat.
Castrator – “Covenant of Deceit”
Castrator drummer Carolina Perez recently revealed that the band’s upcoming Coronation of the Grotesque is apparently more “refined” than 2022’s Defiled in Oblivion.
It’s no less brutal in execution, though, with the group outright body-slamming their “Covenant of Deceit” through the speakers with hyper-intense bomb blasts, virulently pointed growls about the abuses of the church, and a fiery two-handed tap attack from new guitarist Sara Lorelein.
Watch your cojones: Castrator ain’t playin’.
Excide – “Your Flowers”
We will indeed give Carolina quintet Excide their flowers for blossoming out this bangin’ new single this week.
On their latest offering, the band cross-pollinate panicked-but-groovy vintage Snapcase vibes with a full-sung, Aughts-post-hardcore feel. They push these petals to the metal, but relinquish a bit of pressure through a slow-drip finale.
The track prepares us for an as-yet undetailed next step for Excide. We’ve got our bouquets ready to throw until then.
Malevolence – “So Help Me God”
It might be worth noting that Malevolence’s latest single, which arrived the same day as the UK act’s Where Only the Truth Is Spoken LP, arrived the week after Father’s Day. Indeed, their patriarch-punishing “So Help Me God” point the finger at an apparently lacking parental figure, one that was bare minimum in absentia on an emotionally supportive level.
Malevolence are a force to be reckoned with on the cut, whether fast-clapping their way through metallic hardcore riffs or vibing into wrecking-ball mosh parts. Lyrically, they show the bad dad no quarter (“There’ll be no flowers on his grave at the end”).
On “God,” it’s a harsh but seemingly cathartic takedown — and that’s why it’s one of the week’s most memorably heavy tracks.
Revocation – “Cronenberged” Feat. Jonny Davy
Revocation get wonderfully revolting on their new body-horror-celebrating mash-out, “Cronenberged.”
Recalling David Cronenberg’s gooily-dysmorphic oeuvre, Dave Davidson and Co. infuse the piece with wickedly transformative thrash-to-blast-to-groove sections, the vocalist-guitarist likewise getting wretched on the mic as he starts growling of teeth sprouting up all over his body. Job for a Cowboy’s Jonny Davy also delivers an expertly bilious guest burble.
The video, meanwhile, is a gleefully gory scene that finds Davidson turning into a tentacled monstrosity. While the song title quite obviously nods to Cronenberg and an old Rick and Morty joke, we can’t help but point out that Davidson tributes a third body-horror master with his John Carpenter’s The Thing T-shirt.
Upon Stone – “Fury My Master”
The arrival of Cali melodeath quintet’s new EP, End Time Lightning, arrived today with a note from the band that they’ve produced a sound that’s “more grandiose, detailed and sharpened than before.” We’re gonna have to go and say that’s supremely on-point, considering lead-off track “Fury, My Master” legitimately includes the mid-song swoosh of a sword being unsheathed.
Upon Stone build on the promise of 2024’s Revolver-championed Dead Mother Moon LP, filling their “Fury” with ballistic scissor-beats, midnight blue guitarmonies and iron-willed screams about raising your blade high in order to “fuck the world” like a true metal warrior.