Here at Revolver, we pride ourselves in living on the cutting edge of heavy music, from metal and hardcore to industrial and hip-hop, and we try to keep you on the front line, too, by giving you a deep look at the innovative noisemakers poised to shape the sound and the scene.
To that end, we've rounded up a handful of musicians who, we think, are on the rise across several different genres — from scream-ified shoegaze to dungeon-echoing death-doom.
Boundaries
RECOMMENDED IF YOU LIKE Counterparts, Varials, the Acacia Strain
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE Though Connecticut metalcore crew Boundaries have been active for a decade, their spring-released Death is Little More marks an awesomely inky rebirth. Balancing heavy melodies and savagely tech-dialed fracture points against vocalist Matt McDougal's ultra-disgusting, Dante-inspired howls, it's a collection of perseverance anthems for those trying their best to crawl out of their own personal circle of hell.
QUOTE "I was on a hunt for any and all inspiration going into the new record," McDougal explains of the LP's literary influence. "I knew I didn't want to do more of the same as far as exclusively writing songs about myself and my life, but I also didn't want to abandon that either.
"Having already known beforehand that I wanted to write the darkest type of stuff lyrically that I ever have, I very quickly connected with the opening of Dante's Inferno and the sentiment of feeling like you have fallen off the path of your own life, and the struggles that come with finding yourself again afterwards."
Civerous
RIYL diSEMBOWELMENT, My Dying Bride, Spectral Voice
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE At its most extreme, the labyrinthian heaviness of Civerous' Maze Envy rolls out as a quixotic minefield of quasi-heretic riffery, jarring extend-o blasts and dark-and-stormy gloomscaping. But while the twists and turns on the Los Angeles group's sophomore album ramps up the technicality from 2021's Decrepit Flesh Relic — and features a co-sign guest vocal from Derek Rydquist, formerly of the Faceless —it's just as easy to get lost in the more spaciously-paced epics of their mega-melancholy, death-doom abyss.
QUOTE "'Shrouded in Crystals' is about the obsession and overwhelming, intense worship one has when they discover the ancient charms and jewels within the maze," Civerous frontman Lord Foul says of one of Maze Envy's most noise-spiraled pieces.
He adds of how they found their sound, "We are a very passionate group of guys who make this music with the intent of capturing others in a state of atmospheric trance and brutality. Far beyond the typical norms within death metal like 'heavy caveman riffs' or 'disgusting dripping music,' we pride ourselves in taking a more serious, artistic route."
Contention
RIYL Broken Vow, Arkangel, Reprisal
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE There's a certifiably reckless, life-endangering menace pumping through Contention's bruising Artillery From Heaven LP. While the Tampa-based, DAZE-style quintet is certainly taking cues from the armor-piercing guitar trills and barrack-'sploding beats of early '00s metalcore, the 10,000-megaton heaviness they're willing to detonate at any time suggests the throwback sound is still as powerfully potent as ever.
QUOTE "Brutal Old Testament imagery has always really stuck with me," vocalist Cosmo Viducci says while explaining his band's penchant for mixing biblical and military violence in their art. "I spent a lot of my religious middle school days ignoring my teachers and reading the most savage parts of Genesis over and over to pass the time.
"For me there's some obvious parallels from Sodom and Gomorrah, Egyptian plagues and genocidal flooding, to modern apocalyptic threats and existential warfare. War imagery has been an overarching theme in our lyrics since the beginning, and I wanted Artillery From Heaven to be a continuation of that. The album cover is the US's M65 atomic cannon performing nuclear tests in preparation for a hot war with the Soviet Union that never happened."
Graywave
RIYL Chelsea Wolfe, Nothing, King Woman
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE The dreamscapes are only getting darker for Birmingham foursome Graywave. While formed as the jangle-hypnotic solo project of U.K. shoegazer Jess Webberley, the full band's new Dancing in the Dust EP rolls in like a REM-disturbing storm cloud of grunge-gloom moodiness and haunting vocal work.
QUOTE "The first ever Graywave show was a solo performance, with maybe three guitar pedals max. We now play as a full band, have much bigger pedal boards, and just generally sound a lot bigger," Webberley explains.
She adds of the band's increasingly aggressive tendencies, "We've always been into heavier music and have backgrounds playing in much heavier bands, so that influence has always been there.... and is definitely something we are excited to push further. The goal is to create a sonic experience that is dark and existential, but also dreamy and ethereal."
HEAVYHEX
RIYL Fiddlehead, Verse, Mindset
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE HEAVYHEX makes insightful punk music to score life's biggest decisions. Whether trafficking in speed-quaked youth crew, or gum-soled post-hardcore, the motivational anthems of the Long Island outfit's True to You is full of regular folks bucking familial expectations and dead-end work weeks to instead walk their truest path.
QUOTE "As a second generation union electrician, my father wanted me to pursue a different career," vocalist David Gastiaburo explains of the roots that informed True to You, and the physical, emotional and artistic toll labor jobs can sometimes take. "While completing a job can feel rewarding... after a taxing eight-hour day, it can be challenging to find the drive to do the things you love. It's easy to go home, unwind and forget about everything you use to do when you weren't so exhausted. I want anyone who can relate, to know they're not alone."
He continues: "We know shit can get tough, but keeping your mind right and staying motivated can get you in a better place very quickly. So keep your head up!"
