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.
Vein.FM - "20 seconds : 20 hours"
Heralded metallic hardcore upstarts Vein dropped two big updates on us this week: The first being they are now known as Vein.FM, and the second being that Vein.FM have released an innovative remix album, old data in a new machine, vol. 1. While these aren't necessarily "new" songs, these reimagined versions go far beyond the traditional remix. Deftones-esque lead single "20 seconds : 20 hours" is spacey, atmospheric and sad, showcasing a revelatory introspective side to the usually pummeling outfit.
Realize - "Disappear"
Goddammit, we love gnarly, abrasive industrial metal à la Godflesh and Nailbomb. Arizona's Realize deliver the goods in regressive fashion, recording with no amps or drums, just effect modulations on all vocals, guitars and bass, while the beats were programmed on an Alesis machine. The results can be heard on "Disappear," a confrontational, dissonant crusher that decimates all takers.
Marilyn Manson - "WE ARE CHAOS"
We finally got it this week: the first real taste of the much anticipated Marilyn Manson x Shooter Jennings collab album, WE ARE CHAOS. The title track and lead single continues the goth-cowboy vibe introduced with 2019's grim, Cashian take on folk traditional "God's Gonna Cut You Down," striding a long, dusty lost highway through ghost towns and broken dreams. "We are sick, fucked up and complicated," Manson intones. "We are chaos, we can't be cured." Indeed.
Poppy - "KHAOS X4"
Also bringing the khaos this week was genre-bending internet provocateur Poppy. Her latest single mixes earworm pop with headbanging metal, as she has been lately, but also adds in an extra element of heart-palpitating electronics. Between her high-pitched vocals, soft-spoken verses and shouting choruses, plus the truckload of guitar riffery going on underneath, when Poppy says she's "happy the world is gonna end," we believe her.
King Yosef - "The Dull Blade"
Smashing together hardcore, industrial and hip-hop, Portland singer, musician and producer King Yosef has been on our radar for awhile. His latest single, "The Dull Blade," crashes and careens with short-circuiting abandon, suggesting the distorted death throes of a Terminator cyborg. It's also a fitting sound for a song written, according to Yosef, "as I was reflecting on a lot of people in my life passing in the last few years." Anguished. Energized. Urgent.
Mastodon - "Fallen Torches"
Atlanta prog-metal trailblazers Mastodon have paid their dues and then some. Turning 20 this year, they're celebrating the milestone with a stacked 16-track rarities compilation, Medium Rarities, including classic covers, soundtrack contributions, instrumentals, B-sides, live recordings and previously unreleased originals including "Fallen Torches." The cut embraces the heavier approach of Remission-era Mastodon, but still jams in that "pop" hook chorus, and of course includes guest vocals by the band's "fifth member," Scott Kelly of Neurosis. Plus, we gotta shout out Brann Dailor's absolutely mind-melting drumming on this one — it'll blow your frickin' mind.
