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 hard rock, hardcore, slam 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.
Initiate – “Delusions”
Initiate singer Crystal Pak recently revealed in a heartfelt Instagram post that the hardcore crew were going to call it quits at the end of 2024. But when some challenging situations upended her day-to-day, she “held on to dear life to the one thing that gave [her] grounding — this band.”
The making of the group’s With Love // With Rage gave the vocalist the chance to “[fall] in love with music and life again,” and she expresses a world of emotions through its five tracks.
With “Delusions,” in particular, she fully unloads with a series of furiously impassioned cries, which get supported by an urgently bounded post-hardcore rhythm and car-crashed harmonic slides.
Killer Kin – “ONE WAY”
All gas, no brakes, Killer Kin quickly gear into a punk ‘n’ roll heater that is indeed — as vocalist Mattie Lea growls it — “sharp as a knife, quick as a whip.” The Connecticut quintet keep the pressure up throughout, never relenting their furious drive.
“ONE WAY” is the lead-off track to the quintet’s new three-song EP, which is streaming now and hits vinyl soon. Considering Lea’s stomping around the “ONE WAY” music video while brandishing the cartoonish brick of TNT he borrowed off Wile E. Coyote, it’d be fair to point out that the total package is explosive.
Like Moths to Flames – “Where the Quiet Devours Me Whole”
“I want to see how deep the wound goes.”
On their latest single, Like Moths to Flames explore the inner recesses of their very being, in the process uprooting a pustulous expulsion of death-punch arpeggiation, scissor-beated fury, and self-aware screams from vocalist Chris Roetter (“The truth is I’m sick of feeling sorry for myself”).
The song goes out with an effects-warped bang, like an Atari 2600 self-immolating in a blaze of glory. The Flames flicker high on this one.
Billy Morrison – “The Tailor” Feat. Marilyn Manson
Misery’s in season.
While there’s high thread-count rockin’ to be admired throughout Billy Morrison’s new Hollow album, many will flock to this en vogue partnership between the guitarist and shock rocker Marilyn Manson.
Morrison envelops the song with burlap-tough, brood-rocked power chords a plenty. Manson’s sartorial tongue suggests we’re all wearing our own unique costume “made out of wounds,” each literal and emotional bruise a new addition to the veritable battle jacket of life.
Northlane – “CUT_it”
Something relatable to anyone working themselves to the bone on their 24/7 grind, “CUT_it” finds Aussie metalcore expansionists Northlane taking a hard look at mental exhaustion and extreme burnout. But while it’s a song about being tired, it’s vital enough to not sound tired.
Dark velvet grooves collide with ominous nu-trap verses and a disruptive, djent-obliterated breakdown. Marcus Bridge fixates on the lack of gas in his tank (“I got nothing else left and my body is a graveyard”), yet throws the afterburners on to thrust himself and the rest of Northlane into overdrive while he still can.
Slam Band – “PEEWEE JERKIN” Feat. Filth
Today’s secret word is “JERKIN,” and if you hear anyone say it, you gotta scream real loud.
Slam Band just delivered a hyper-absurd and hella heavy tribute to Pee-wee’s Playhouse. Though vocalist Dustin Jamal Mitchell (also of Filth) sloshes his tongue around various genre-reflective pig squeals, things get surreal once he starts hiccupping Herman-style “hahas” into the track with childish glee.
We honestly can’t tell if the song is deep-cover memecore satire or just a bunch of dudes dreaming up the dumbest shit imaginable to crack each other up. It may even be both. Either way, we’d imagine Pee-wee and the Puppet Band would approve.