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, hardcore, 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.
Knocked Loose - "Don't Reach Out for Me"
When you call your latest single the "meanest song" you've ever written, like Knocked Loose vocalist Bryan Garris did with "Don't Reach Out for Me," you'd best bring it hardcore. And damned if the Kentucky breakdown kings didn't do just that with this latest behemoth off You Won't Go Before You're Supposed to.
On top of its strings-unfurled slamming, micro-blast heaviness and an anthemically gloomy chorus that reflects pure Vantablack, you've got Garris barking venomously about "a fitting end for an absolute fucking clown."
Intense and nasty — just the way we like it.
Better Lovers - "The Flowering"
"The Flowering" has been in Better Lovers' setlist since the hardcore supergroup — featuring former members of Every Time I Die and the Dillinger Escape Plan — popped up on the scene last year, so it's finally fucking time the song got its proper, studio-recorded release.
The pure mania of the three-minute pounder is full of Escher staircase guitar noodling and pseudo-grunge/punk noisiness. Plus, if Greg Puciato's hunger pangs in the music video are to be believed, there's also a perfect mosh break to grab yourself a donut.
Kittie - "We Are Shadows"
The Spit-flavored chromatic nu-mosh riffs of Kittie's latest comeback single, "We Are Shadows," definitely harken back to the Canadian quartet's early days, but the metal veterans have also weathered the storm long enough to not rely on pure nostalgia.
Instead, vocalist-guitarist Morgan Lander looks ahead to an uncertain fate, buckling up with her bandmates for the oncoming darkness, full-on ready to groove until "the bitter end."
Candy - "eXistenZ"
Is "eXistenZ" — Candy's latest chaotic confection — an industrial-tinged tribute to body horror auteur David Cronenberg's 1999 sci-fi offering of the same name?
Stands to reason it should be, but either way, we're game to have the hardcore contortionists implant some kind of biotech onto our spines, so that fuzzed-out fury can rattle us to our core. Like, even more than usual.
Umbra Vitae - "Belief Is Obsolete"
Umbra Vitae are back, and don't worry, the metal/hardcore supergroup — made up of members of Converge, Twitching Tongues, the Red Chord and more — still love old-school death metal and thrash.
The presence of Jacob Bannon understandably gives the raging "Belief Is Obsolete" a veneer of Converge-styled screechiness, but you can practically hear the band diming their HM-2 guitar pedals in real time as they saw through off-the-bone, OSDM trilling. As for the double-barreled kicking in the chorus, it suggests that the band's upcoming Light of Death is probably beaming through from somewhere south of heaven.
ERRA - "Slow Sour Bleed"
The final pre-release single off ERRA's new album, Cure, "Slow Sour Bleed" finds the progressive metalcore veterans scratching "an itch of influence that we haven't had the courage to explore in the past," as guitarist Jesse Cash put it. Specifically, they embraced their love of Nine Inch Nails, which had previously been showcased with a 2021 cover of "Heresy."
That said, "Slow Sour Bleed" is far from mere NIN worship. Instead, it's a compelling fusion of downward-spiraling industrial rock with ERRA's own djenty, sing-scream brand of sleek modern heaviness.
