Here at Revolver, we're always on the hunt for great new music — indeed, it's a big part of our jobs. With that in mind, here are the tracks released this week in metal, hard rock, hardcore and beyond that have been on heavy rotation at Revolver HQ. For your listening pleasure, we've also compiled the songs in a Spotify playlist, below, which will grow each week.
Azusa - "Interstellar Islands"
If you thought the members of the Dillinger Escape Plan were gonna go quietly into retirement after the band's breakup last year, well, why the fuck would you think that? While singer Greg Puciato readies the new offering from his electronic outfit the Black Queen, and guitarist Ben Weinman pops up in Suicidal Tendencies, bassist Liam Wilson has teamed up members of Norwegian metal group Extol and German indie-rock duo Sea + Air to form head-spinning multinational collective Azusa. Their debut single "Interstellar Islands" is as kaleidoscopic and weird as you'd expect from that lineup, setting Eleni Zafiriadou's freewheeling sing-scream-and-everything-in-between vocals against knotty riffage and tender melody. The result is heady yet visceral, and as exciting a progressive metal offering as we've heard in a while.
Cloak - "Beyond the Veil"
"Black 'n' roll" isn't an easy style to pull off, but Atlanta's Cloak show they're more than capable of boiling down sweeping riffs and evil vibes into digestible, gut-punching song with "Beyond the Veil." The cut rolls out with a thick, atmospheric fog before pile-driving into a sped-up, bouncy rhythm, hooking in a blast beat and black-metal riff here and there to keep things moving. After some quick detours into quieter melody and a face-melting solo, the song spins out into a cannonball of a final riff, leaving the listener shellshocked and whip-lashed.
If there's one thing Coheed and Cambria are excellent at, it's writing huge songs. They've delivered another one with their latest single "The Gutter," which re-traces the many eras of the band for one massive track. There are screams reminiscent of In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth 3, the optimistic, star-gazing guitar work of Color Before the Sun, and it all ends in a riff reminiscent of another group entirely — Queen — to show their arena-rock chops are fully in place.
Heavy on echo and flanger, Temple of Angels are a post-punk band anchored by the, yes, angelic range and power of singer Bre Morell. There's a gothic sway, New-Wave shimmer and underlying sexiness to it all, and the Texas-based four-piece wow on their first single "Star-Shaped Eyes" from the Foiled EP due next week.
Djenty metalcore stalwarts Silent Planet take on the world's opioid epidemic on their expansive, savage new single "Share the Body," which artfully juxtaposes skull-flattening Meshuggah-isms with spacey post-rock passages and vocals that run the gamut of metallic approaches, from Cookie Monster roars to spoken-word exhortations to raw-throated crooning. Over its far-reaching four minutes, the song traces a frighteningly captivating and vivid descent into the hell of addiction.
The grinding death assault of Infernal Coil continues with "Continuum Cruciatus," another hateful, chaotic and ultimately fascinating track from the group's forthcoming Profound Lore debut Within a World Forgotten. Meeting somewhere between the worlds of Knelt Rote and Revenge, this should please fans of both, as well as those obsessed with the icy death metal that is proliferating the Northwest as of late.
