6 New Songs You Need to Hear This Week: 3/30/18 | Revolver

6 New Songs You Need to Hear This Week: 3/30/18

Zeal & Ardor, At the Gates, Light This City and more
Zeal & Ardor 2018 Press, Carlos Jaramillo
Zeal & Ardor's Manuel Gagneux
photograph by Carlos Jaramillo

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, which will grow each week.

Zeal & Ardor - "Gravedigger's Chant"
Just in time for Good Friday — one of the holiest days of the year — roots-metal alchemist Manuel Gagneux has suddenly emerged from the shadows clutching Zeal & Ardor's latest offering, "Gravedigger's Chant." An intricate spider's web of gospel, blues, soul and black metal, the rootsy dirge shows a noticeable uptick in ambition where the arrangements are concerned, expanding the trans-genre saga with the help of esteemed producer (and Converge axeman) Kurt Ballou.

At the Gates - "A Stare Bound in Stone"
You're not gonna find any curveballs in the new At the Gates track, and that's totally fine with us. All the components are there — whether that's the stomping beat, deceivingly melodic approach or Tompa's shredded throat — and with this many riffs, we're hardly complaining. Judging from this mid-tempo tantrum, To Drink From the Night Itself should be a damn fine slab o' death metal.

Light This City - "A Grotesque Reflection"
Re-activated Bay Area upstarts Light This City brought their decade-long hiatus to a decisive, earsplitting end this week with "A Grotesque Reflection," the searing first single off their upcoming fifth album Terminal Bloom. Having spent the past ten years recording and touring with various side projects (Heartsounds for drummer Ben Murray and bandleader Laura Nichol; Urchin Barren for guitarist Ryan Hansen and bassist Jon Frost), the death-dealers have no time for playing catch-up; instead, the five-piece get right to the melodic, riff-filled goodness we've been craving since '08.

Hilary Woods - "Inhaler"
Co-produced and mixed by James Kelly — former frontman for Irish black metal band Altar of Plagues, and current architect behind dark electronic project WIFE — the latest offering from goth-folk auteur Hilary Woods' upcoming Colt LP balances instrumental tenderness and dynamic turmoil to great effect, coming across as a mixture of Kate Bush, Scott Walker and the Cocteau Twins after stumbling into Vangelis in the Parisian crypts. On the surface "Inhaler" is a beautiful, serene track, but we can't escape the feeling of dread creeping up from its depths.

Impure - "Transfixed in Limbo"
Started in 2017, Impure is a trio fixated on keeping metal filthy and hate-filled, with a sound not far removed from the forefathers in Bathory or even modern forebears like Funeral Mist, Craft or early Watain. A singular riff is the focus of their latest single "Transfixed in Limbo," and said riff is served up in three different ways: half-speed, normal and blasting at double time. Regardless of the approach of the rhythm section, the riff is nasty and primitive – played with such ferocity and raw emotion that we dare you not clench your fist in triumph.

The Armed - "Luxury"
The Armed have been treating us to a stream of good shit these past several weeks in the lead up to their new album Only Love. Their latest track, "Luxury Themes," is just as nuts as what they've thrown down previously, while heading in a completely different direction. Industrial fuzz backs the track, helping the band move succinctly between moody verses, and terse moments of fury. It's a quiet kind of weird, where noise invokes beauty and an unexpected head trip.