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.
Magic Circle - "Departed Souls"
Boston's Magic Circle is not only comprised of some of the best musicians that hardcore and punk has to offer, but some of the greatest musicians in the Northeast, period. With a roster that includes members from unstoppable groups including Mind Eraser, Mental, Innumerable Forms and Battle Ruins, Magic Circle (which just might be the members' longest running project overall) focus on classic heavy metal, doom and bands that fall in the cracks therein. Their latest track, "Departed Souls" (from the LP of the same name), showcases the crew's progression from previous efforts, boasting a strong Candlemass and Cirith Ungol lean, muscular riffs and soaring vocals. Simply put, this one slaps.
Big Business - "Let Them Grind"
Driven by the monstrous talent of drummer Coady Willis and the huge buzz of bass-wielding frontman Jared Warren, Big Business are back and sounding huge as ever on their latest offering, "Let Them Grind." Harmonized vocals and a flawless, headbanging beat are relentless as the track moves from heavy to heavier. The duo always manages to maximize its minimalist presence, but the triumphant overtones here evoke hope and wonder — no easy task when you're peddling filthy, sludgy doom riffs.
HEALTH - "Feel Nothing"
HEALTH may not be a "traditional" metal band, but thanks to their knowledge of electronics they become heavy in a multitude of ways a typical guitar-based band could not touch. "Feel Nothing" exemplifies their electronic expertise. The song opens with a wave of heavy-as-hell industrial riffs and thundering percussion which give way, momentarily, to the shimmering, melancholy vocals. A huge, hypnotic, beautiful track.
Hate Force - "Stolen Valor"
Hate Force is a hell of a band name, and pretty much exactly describes the sound you're going to hear when you throw on "Stolen Valor." The band plays a mean opening riff that verges on crusty black metal that casts a huge shadow over everything else going on. The band's pedigree, being made up of members from Harm's Way and Weekend Nachos, helps add an edge of hardcore pacing to the song's midpoint, a real behemoth of a track.
Ritual Howls - "Alone Together"
Desert goths in cowboy hats might seem like the start of an anecdotal joke told in a skit-show segment starring Glenn Danzig and Sisters of Mercy's Andrew Eldritch, but Ritual Howls took an aural interpretation of that concept, soaked it in a wash of enviable reverb and bellowing baritone vocals, added a dash of blistering lust and eerie keys, and out came "Alone Together." It's the lace-covered love song every dramatic romantic dreams of, gently throbbing with stifled passion and overflowing with desire. Smoky Lynchian guitar riffs and a simple, distant backbeat drive the swirling atmosphere of the track before crashing into a delightful death-cry crescendo in the end.
Boundaries - "My Body in Bloom"
In the current wave of metallic hardcore bands, oftentimes the way to go about things is to write the heaviest material possible without much concern for complexity or technicality. Not the case for Connecticut crew Boundaries and their new burner "My Body in Bloom." After following a foreboding spoken-word intro, the band kicks shit into maximum overdrive, dropping some riffs akin to Disembodied. The song then veers into territories like death metal and other points on the extreme-metal spectrum to create a fresh new hardcore mutation.
