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 metal, hard rock, hardcore and beyond that have been on heavy rotation at Revolver HQ. For your listening pleasure, we've also compiled the songs in a Spotify playlist, which will grow each week.
Great Grief - "Feeling Fine"
Icelandic post-hardcore outfit Great Grief stir up an inescapable storm of emotion on their latest single "Feeling Fine." The band throws back to foundational groups like Thursday and Thrice, channeling those bands' ability to remain aggressive, emotional and catchy in a single sequence. Choruses are screamed in a way that encourages everyone to join in and also to un-self-consciously purge all their negative vibes. Feeling fine? After blasting this, we are.
VLTIMAS - "Praevalidus"
Ex–Morbid Angel frontman Dave Vincent might be known for his quickly shifting aesthetic moods, but one thing remains certain: his powerful, eviscerating growl. Together with Aura Noir's Rune Eriksen and Cryptopsy's Flo Mounier, he made extreme-metal fans' dreams come true by forming victorious blackened death supergroup Vltmas. Their first single "Praevalidus" is a blistering, lighting-speed ripper born direct from the bowels of Hell itself. Grisly riffs and vomitous vocals forge into absolutely punishing breakdowns, a demonic hand gripping the throat of the listener for a disorienting immersion into one of the harshest releases this year.
HEALTH - "SLAVES OF FEAR"
Experimental Los Angeles electronic-rock crew Health are back with gloomy, industrial-leaning single "SLAVES OF FEAR" that divides its time between aggressively danceable beats and cautiously abstract ephemeral noise, occasionally letting the bottom drop out completely to allow the hollow, affected vocals to hang weightlessly amid soothing electronic buzz. Then comes a nightmarish breakout near the end, one final chaotic pummeling before a swirling, transcendent synth line fades slowly out.
holehearted - "HABIT"
Simply put, a lot of metalcore is extremely predictable. Las Vegas crew holehearted — not so much. On "HABIT," the young quintet has assembled a labyrinth of twists, turns and pure chaos. In holehearted's world, what would normally be a breakdown can disassemble down into a completely different tempo or noise. Guitars sound completely manic, building off several generations of weird-heavy, from Botch to Sworn In, and delivering a completely asymmetrical approach to the genre.
Ecostrike - "Another Promise"
Florida straight-edge hardcore band Ecostrike has been making a name for itself across the hardcore festival circuit in 2018, and are capping off a strong year with a suplex of an EP. "Another Promise" is a masterclass in pacing a hardcore song, coming in with a full-speed-ahead riff that takes a few detours into groove and aggression. The cut ends by doing something few bands have the patience to figure out: It earns its breakdown. Every beat of the song leads to this final mosh part, and it'll clearly be a floor-killer in 2019.
Myrkur - "Bonden og Kragen"
Since her 2015 debut record, M, Myrkur's Amalie Bruun has been exploring the haunting intersection between black metal and folk music. Bruun takes her love of the latter one step further on her latest EP, Juniper, which features the musician's mesmerizing reading of a 400-year-old Danish folk song "Bonden og Kragen." The song's minimal instrumentation of gently plucked acoustic guitar is a perfect vehicle Bruun's pristine vocals, which tell an ancient tale of a crow-murdering farmer and a church bishop. But even if you don't speak Danish and can't understand a word she's saying, you'll still catch some feelings thanks to the song's melancholy melody and beautifully hypnotic guitars.
