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 death metal, metalcore, nu-metal 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.
A Perfect Circle - "Kindred"
Despite being tied to Maynard James Keenan's upcoming "Sessanta" celebration, A Perfect Circle's new "Kindred" single takes on a profoundly solemn, tender tone. That's because the texturally gorgeous, though contextually heavy piece has Keenan taking on the role of a parent discussing death with a child.
As guitarist Billy Howerdel's seizes onto soft-gauze shimmering, Keenan's familiar tenor tremor lays out various "teaching moments," from the seeming randomness of life and death, to the fleeting connections we make along the way, to holding onto the hope that one day we can all meet again in the afterlife ("Kindred spirits wait just beyond, across those bridges.")
Haunting stuff.
Mistress - "Floating"
Seemingly materialized out of nowhere this week, Mistress comprises members of respected metal forces Fuming Mouth, High Command and more. This Central Massachesetts supergroup takes on a substantially gloomier, slow-mo feel than those other projects, however.
Recorded by Arthur Rizk, the band's four-song demo is teed off by "Floating," where funereal pacing and molasses-coated fuzz are paired with a grim but melodic tale about about exiting your rotting corporeal form ("No one was looking, but they found me floating").
It's a welcome taste of Mistress' slate-gray stoniness, with a full-length said to be due sometime in 2025.
Foreign Hands - "God Under FIngernails"
Foreign Hands have always impressed us with their stately command of early '00s metalcore sounds. The quintet honestly outdoes themselves with the retro-futuristic heaviness of their "God Under Fingernails," though.
The ground-fissuring second single off their forthcoming What's Left Unsaid LP conjures prime Nineties New England — think Converge's Jacob Bannon pterodactyl-ing atop of the frantically haunted guitar-monies of Cave In's Until Your Heart Stops.
Thinking of their own legacy, Foreign Hands expand upon that initial griminess with a dissonantly vicious fast-core transition and a double-barreled beatdown finale where vocalist Tyler Norris turns this into the de facto band anthem, while screaming about love dying "by foreign hands."
SeeYouSpaceCowboy - "To the Dance Floor for Shelter” Feat. Courtney LaPlante
San Diego genre-obliterators SeeYouSpaceCowboy haven't exactly abandoned white-belt sass or savage metalcore with their latest Coup De Grâce single, "To the Dance Floor for Shelter," but it's also crystal clear that the tune totally dimes into the formative influence of melancholy, mid-'00s pop punk.
From the moody piano intro to the high-drama power chord parading of the chorus, the single practically comes to us wrapped in lace arm stockings and Hot Topic eyeliner. There's also the alchemical romance going on between SYSC's Connie Sgarbopssa and Spiritbox powerhouse Courtney LaPlante, as they duet softly and shriek-styled on the cut.
Bodybox - "Skante"
Orlando's Bodybox burped up a most stupefying salsa/slam hybrid this week with their "Skante" single, but what's even wilder is that they'd been keeping this menacingly danceable caveman masterpiece in their back pocket for the last three years. Better late than never.
Driven by an outright ruthless oil-drum snare sound, "Skante"'s front-end groove pops infectiously and is totally primed to get you two-stepping in all kinds of ways. The Maggot Stomp signees get super greasy from there, quickly unleashing pig squeals, pinch harmonics and bomb blasts on an ode to — apparently — crystal meth (if you didn't piece together the chemistry class sight gag of the single art).
Amira Elfeky - "Save Yourself"
"Save Yourself, " the centerpiece of Amira Elfeky's debut Skin to Skin EP, is arguably the alt-metal rising star's heaviest moment to date.
On the song, Elfeky's self-described "blend of 2000s nu-metal mall-goth bagginess [and] dark vampirism" leans away from the anthemic Evanescence-isms that echo in so much of her other output and leans instead into the rafter-shaking wall-of-sound dynamics of Deftones-style nu-gaze.
Hazy, lysergic and seductive, you'll be hard-pressed to, ahem, save yourself from its enveloping spell.
