Daron Malakian and Scars on Broadway – “Killing Spree”
System of a Down’s Daron Malakian is seriously troubled over the kids these days.
“Killing Spree” — the lead single off his Scar on Broadway project’s forthcoming Addicted to the Violence — uses triplet-chugged heaviness, operatically ominous vocal harmonies and Malakian’s best tiger roar to tackle society’s increasingly violent nature — and the fact that perpetrators and bystanders alike are bizarrely capturing it all on their smartphones. “Insanity,” as he puts it.
Despite such concerning context, Scars are back on the attack, and their first album since 2018 is already shaping up to be a delirious and expertly violent ride.
Mugshot – “I Will Be Here Forever”
At one point in Mughot’s latest metallic mash-out, “I Will Be Here Forever,” the California outfit’s Ringo Waterman starts howling of a “plague I keep for myself in my own head.” Sounds rough! The good news, however, is that he and the band are infecting us with a different kind of sickness on their latest All the Devils are Here single.
The act crush through this latest track with wild abandon, jamming the noise-pressed assault with micro-doses of all-glitch freaktronica, oppressively pinched hammer-ons, and beats that land harder than a hydraulic press on a human skull.
In other words, we hope Mugshot are here for a good time and a long time.
Paleface Swiss – “I Am a Cursed One”
Paleface Swiss’ latest song is an outright wrecker. Its furious back-and-forth between mercury-powered blasts and nu-brooded beatdowns is severe, to say the least. Vocalist Marc Zellwegger, meanwhile, is in peak form with his powerful, punishing screams.
Yet despite its abrasive tone, “I Am a Cursed One” is in fact a battle-cry tribute to Paleface Swiss’ die-hards — a theme reflected in the single’s tour-doc-style music video, which finds fans posing for selfies with the band or going absolutely batshit bonkers in the pit during a show.
No need to break this curse — the Swiss combo sure seem to be in good company these days.
PRESIDENT – “Fearless”
“I can’t lie to myself.”
The latest proclamation from modern metal’s fearless new leader finds the masked PRESIDENT showing his true self to the world — though fans aren’t convinced it’s through the literal unmasking at the end of the “Fearless” video. It’d be kinda anticlimactic, after all, if the project blew the mystery just two songs into their career.
What’s sure is that PRESIDENT, as a group, are staking their claim to the highest offices of pop culture through a bedrock of autotuned crooning, yearning arena-rock choruses, and melancholically distortion-jolted riffery. And for that, we salute them. Whoever they really are.
Signs of the Swarm – “Clouded Retinas” Feat. Will Ramos
Signs of the Swarm’s new single with Lorna Shore’s Will Ramos was going to be heavy, no matter what — but it’s the personal story behind “Clouded Retinas” that might hit the hardest.
Vocalist David Simonich explained that the intense track is about his struggles with Stargardt disease, an ocular affliction that has degenerated his eyesight (“Eyes fading even blacker/Your vision is obscured”). He channels his frustration over the deathcore band’s precision blasting and concussive breaks.
As for Ramos, he helps his friends raise awareness the best way he can: through a barrage of ultra-nasty and ungodly vocal expulsions.
Wisp – “Save me now”
Ahead of a summer of fest appearances and a series of shows opening for System of a Down, sadgirl nu-gaze phenom Wisp is sandblasting the soul with her crucially distorted new anthem, “Save me now.”
The song starts subtly enough with gentle whispers, a Nineties-pop breakbeat and a lush, low-gain round of stacked-fifth strumming. The boost pedals come into play quick, though, with massive guitar melodies bleeding out the speakers alongside Wisp’s heart-swelling chorus vocal.
Let the song rescue you from your work week and blast it all weekend long.