6 Best New Songs Right Now: 1/18/19 | Page 2 | Revolver

6 Best New Songs Right Now: 1/18/19

Une Misère, Ithaca, Whitechapel and more
une misere PRESS 2019, Amy Haslehurst
Une Misère, 2019
photograph by Amy Haslehurst

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 and hardcore 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.

Une Misère - "Damages"
Vicious blackened hardcore gets an even icier edge in the hands of Icelandic heavy metal outfit Une Misère. Their latest track "Damages" is an undulating flurry of sharp blasts and belaboring breakdowns, a hellish and barbaric effort that stands apart from simpler, more cleanly produced entries in the genre. The stark and horrifying clip accompanying the track echoes the terror of Icelandic folklore monsters that haunt the country's unpopulated terrain, adding complex madness to the song's moving parts before the bottom drops out halfway through and becomes a crushing slog through the fist-pounding meat of the song.

Ithaca - "Impulse Crush"
Ithaca are the talk of the metallic-hardcore scene, and their latest single "Impulse Crush" exemplifies why. Drawing from pure, unadulterated fury while maintaining an attitude of fun and camaraderie, the track is leaden but provides room for dynamics and discordant accents to shine through on the cyclical breakdowns. The band has hit its musical stride while maintaining the sound that made them popular in the U.K. hardcore scene years ahead of their upcoming debut full-length — and their future looms brighter than the neon confetti infesting the song's simple but visually stimulating video.

Warish - "Human Being"
Riley Hawk is our dude. He's a badass skater, a diehard metalhead and his stoner-rock band Petyr has riffs for days. His new group Warish might be even better, though. In his words, it's "a little more punk, a little bit of grunge … a little evil-ish." Warish's latest offering is a cover of Seventies proto-metal outfit Coloured Balls, who Kurt Cobain reportedly fucked with, and it sounds something like Ministry's "Jesus Built My Hot Rod" run through a washing machine. In other words, weird, wild and wonderful.

Whitechapel - "Third Depth"
Whitechapel have outlived the 2000s deathcore wave and come into their own as a band. Unlike other acts in their lane that tried and failed at the clean vocal approach, Whitechapel deliver sung vocals in a somber way not unlike those of Tool's Maynard James Keenan, offering a quiet reflection not heard in a lot of their music. "Third Death" excels at this approach — made more impactful juxtaposed with the song's crushingly heavy sections — and presents a truly mature, exciting new wave for the band.

Elizabeth Colour Wheel - "23"
Elizabeth Colour Wheel is a band out of Boston that warps together shades of post-metal, grunge and shoegaze to create something totally off-the-wall. New single "23" contorts all of these elements together into a gritty rock anthem, led by singer Lane Shi who haunts the musical maelstrom in her own unique way. The song slows down at its midpoint, growing into a new form that appears less aggressive at first, but soon hits a dirty and beautiful crescendo.

xServitudex - "Wicked City"
Everything about U.K.'s xServitudex is on point to let you know exactly what you're going to get, from the blogspotcore album artwork to literally throwing X's right in their band name to their blunt-force bio: vegan edge metal. Their latest song, "Wicked City," offers a complete barrage of heaviness, leaning deeply on the "metallic" side of metallic hardcore and serving up riffs that could fit right at home on a Nineties Earache Record sampler in the best way. The riffs continue to converge and contort into an utterly bone-shattering breakdown.