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 post-hardcore, gothic metal, powerviolence 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.
Better Lovers – “A White Horse Covered in Blood”
Every Time I Die-Dillinger Escape Plan-Fit for an Autopsy supergroup Better Lovers are a wild stallion crashing out the opening gate with the first official preview of their upcoming debut full-length, Highly Irresponsible.
It’s a perilously percussive punisher, the kind of song that feels like a pair of back-kicking horseshoes just absolutely decimated your chest cavity. Greg Puciato is on the attack through sass-styled warnings and neck-vein-popping intensity. As he puts it, “There’s nowhere to run now,” and the post-hardcore all-star team are charging for us, full-steam ahead.
Lacuna Coil – “Hosting the Shadow” Feat. Randy Blythe
There’s a curious duality to the Italian metal vets’ latest ink-black gothic-metal anthem. While the gruff-stomped and soaring-chorus’d cut is a mega-sized duet entwining Cristina Scabbia’s forever-skyward vocals with the feral growlings of Lamb of God frontman Randy Blythe, both performers spend their time singing about experiencing abject isolation at the bottom of a perilous emotional abyss.
The contrasting elements combine for a powerful metallic collaboration that, despite the dismal themes, feels ultimately triumphant.
Collapsed Skull – “Dreamless Error”
East coast powerviolence unit Collapsed Skull’s band name is just about the most perfect encapsulation of the blunt-force trauma they’re about to induce through upcoming debut full-length, Your Father’s Rage Evaporated In The Sun.
As a sneak preview, the Full of Hell side project’s “Dreamless Error” is a fast-blasting waking nightmare of ruthless drum damage, fuzz-corroded jazz bass subversion that brings to mind peak-period Man Is the Bastard, chopped-up hip-hop interludes, a body-slammin’ guest spot from God’s Hate vocalist Brody King, and the overall feeling of getting doused in 30 gallons of skin-peeling Xenomorph blood.
Cranium-crushing indeed.
Smashing Pumpkins – “Sicarus”
Smashing Pumpkins told us their new Aghori Mhori Mei would be throwing back to the Siamese Dream days, but maybe that was more generally in spirit than in sound.
With heavy-ass highlight “Sicarus,” for example, the alt-rock icons completely disarm expectations with an energized, metallic-waltz chunk-athon that arguably speaks more to the foundational influence of Mercyful Fate and Judas Priest that Billy Corgan told Revolver about a while back than, say, the setlist from the Pumpkins’ headlining run on Lollapalooza ’94.
Jinjer – “Someone’s Daughter”
Ukrainian juggernaut Jinjer threw the first punch of a brand-new era via “Someone’s Daughter,” an emotional and aesthetic bruiser of epic proportions.
The proggy pivots and waterslide-slick fretless bass runs are on point, but its vocalist Tatiana Shmayluk that lands the most brutal of blows, whether leaning into pyramid-leveling screams or powerfully-sung moments about what it’s like for a woman to be living forever on-guard in this cruel world of ours.
Love Is Noise – “Jawbreaker”
U.K. hard-gazers Love is Noise work a few different vibes through their bone-atomizing “Jawbreaker,” all of them to pure perfection.
There are hints of pastel-violet Deftones-ing through its most melancholic moments, but the song also upends itself chaotically through jackhammer-on-the-fritz metalcore drum patterns and heart-harrowed screaming. Though vocalist Cameron Humphrey pleads that we not “go sprinting to a fire,” it’s hard not be drawn like a moth to Love is Noise’s incendiary flame.