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.
Higher Power - "Seamless"
While we all eagerly await new Deftones music, at least we have this badass new song from U.K. melodic hardcore upstarts Higher Power. It has all the off-kilter, groove-heavy, sing/shriek power of an early 'Tones classic, but injected with an extra dose of spacey, nasally Jane's Addiction weirdness. However you cut it, "Seamless" bodes extremely well for the group's forthcoming Roadrunner debut, which really cannot come fast enough.
Mizmor - "Desert of Absurdity"
One-man project Mizmor's brand of melancholy, transcendent black metal shines beautifully dark on their latest, "Desert of the Absurdity." The acoustic intro leads the listener gently into the fiery landscape of the track's scorched-earth body where torment and wrath join gracefully to create something wholly hellish but entrancing all the same.
Cult of Luna - "Lay Your Head to Rest"
Post-metal Swedes Cult of Luna's ability to grip the mind with relatively simple passages that grow slowly, folding in and around on themselves until the swell hits fever pitch, is a singular testament to their songwriting prowess. "Lay Your Head to Rest" proceeds like a mass funeral march directly into the apocalypse, the acerbic vocals and jagged riffs thundering above a dead serious drum beat for six and a half painful minutes before fading out slowly like a dying tide.
Chelsea Wolfe - "Deranged for Rock & Roll"
Anything Chelsea Wolfe puts out is a must-hear, and her latest single is no different. Wolfe delivers her ethereal vocals with a doll-like, almost maniacal quiver in certain sections before she leans deeper into the woeful atmospherics where her best work lives. Possibly the best cut on her forthcoming mostly acoustic album Birth of Violence, the song is a gorgeously dark anthem for those, like Wolfe, who feel most at peace in the madness of the musician's life.
Korn - "Can You Hear Me
Korn's sound on the so-far-released three singles from The Nothing sees them reach further into themselves and outside of their signature sound to create something still true to form but more mature and expansive. The first two offerings, "You'll Never Find Me" and "Cold," gave off a deeply aggressive energy, but with their new jam, "Can You Hear Me," the Bakersfield alt-metal crew deliver a huge, radio-ready hit that sounds half-heartbroken, half-exuberant, and fully actualized in the scope of Korn's catalog.
Boy Harsher - "Send Me a Vision"
Boy Harsher are masters of cinematic sound, lit up nicely in the wavering tones of their latest single "Send Me a Vision." Romance, danger and sexual depravity run throughout the track's disparate veins; the gritty underbelly of Los Angeles infuses every second while an instantly catchy groove ensures this will join their previous best in constant rotation on darkwave dance floors for years to come.
