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 hip-hop-spiked slam, voracious alt-metal, skull-crushing sludge 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.
Atomic Rule – “Song One”
Former Every Time I Die guitarist Andy Williams and his new Atomic Rule project finally broke the silence this week by delivering their monstrously riffy debut EP, With Skull Crushing Force. And as far as introductions go, you don’t get much better than the aptly-named tee-off track, “Song One.”
Williams brings the heat with his low-spindling guitar work — sludging at times, panicked through others. A progressive mid-song swing takes the heavy tune towards a Mastodonic feel, while vocalist James Hendergroove offers sandpaper growls and raspy vocal hooks above a space-gazing breakdown.
Gasket – “BLOOD TO BONE”
Following last year’s crucially chaotic Babylon EP, Baltimore quartet Gasket have revealed plans to issue a self-titled album in November. And if two-step-inducing lead-off single “BLOOD TO BONE” is an indication of what to expect, we’re about to be pulverized into a bloody pulp come release day.
Vocalist Flynn Zimmer noted ahead of time that the gnarly song is about being “wronged by a friend.” Going by the vicious sound of he and his bandmates conjure, it might be best to stay on their good side.
Jutes – “Parasite”
Canadian-born, L.A.-based solo artist Jutes unveiled his latest snack this week in the form of “Parasite,” a dangerously erotic serving of Bad Omens-adjacent alt-metal.
He’s a benevolent host, and offers up his entire essence to said parasite with a nocturnally pervy croon (“Come fuck me up/Don’t be shy/Take a bite”). After making a meal of a darkly incandescent groove, Jutes and his band head into a gut-rumbling breakdown accented by a wildly speaker-panning scream.
“Parasite” has us hungry for the rest of Jutes’ Dilworth LP, which arrives later this year.
PeelingFlesh – “DVPB”
PeelingFlesh are feeling all fucked up about the world, or at least so say the slam-and-hip-hop-merging Oklahomans at the top of their “DVPB” track from the newly released and outrageously putrescent PF Radio 2. Mercifully, “the heaviest band right now” have tracks like these to help hammer though the tough times.
The album’s penultimate number begins with a piano-twisted rap intro, but quickly builds itself towards a worlds-colliding mélange of danceably downcast caveman riffs, St. Anger-grade snare pings, canyon-sized brees, and bars about cruising down the highway towards your “designation.”
This is all to say, we 100 percent ride with PeelingFlesh’s apocalyptic road anthem.
PRESIDENT – “Dionysus”
“Patience don’t come easy” when you’re waiting for one of the most heavily anticipated releases of the year, but PRESIDENT’s six-song debut EP, King of Terrors, has finally arrived in full. And with it comes the reveal of the masked act’s heart-tugging but still heavy-set “Dionysus.”
PRESIDENT paint the palette with kabooming guitar melancholy, icy R&B-styled drum production and a soaring chorus. For a track named after the Greek god of festivity, The Artist’s lyrics read more conflict-centered than celebratory — yet the track’s arrival is bound to put PRESIDENT fans into a fit of ecstasy.
Soulfly – “Nihilist” feat. Todd Jones
Soulfly have served up a second taste of their forthcoming Chama, and this time around they’ve invited Nails leader Todd Jones to help get the heavy groove going.
“Nihilist” isn’t as tribally percussive as “Storm the Gates,” instead anchoring itself into brutally pounded-down drums and stone-age open-jud severity. Max Cavalera honestly sounds angry as hell while castigating those “finding truth in deceit” and manipulative scripture. Jones is just as bleak as he howls, “I don’t believe in anything.”
It’s dark, and we’re praying it only gets heavier from here.