6 New Songs You Need to Hear This Week: 4/13/18 | Page 4 | Revolver

6 New Songs You Need to Hear This Week: 4/13/18

Ghost, Pallbearer, Cold Cave and more
ghost_pr_2018.jpg, Mikael Erikssonn
photograph by Mikael Erikssonn

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.

Ghost - "Rats"
Describing Ghost's fourth album Prequelle to Revolver earlier this year, mastermind Tobias Forge singled out the Black Death — better known as the bubonic plague, a pandemic spread largely by rats that claimed the lives of some 75–200 million Europeans in the mid-fourteenth century — as one of the record's main sources of inspiration. Given such a grim thematic backdrop, you'd think the record's lead single "Rats" (read the full lyrics here) would be as crusty and foul as its rodent namesake. Rather, Cardinal Copia and the Nameless Ghouls make the most of a dire situation by contrasting disease-ridden imagery with honeyed melodies and reverb-heavy anthemic choruses reminiscent of Blue Öyster Cult.

Pallbearer - "Dropout"
If Torche were the originators of "doom pop," Pallbearer may turn out to be its perfecters. Their latest cut, the stand-alone Adult Swim single "Dropout," swings and soars in glorious slow motion, like a Nineties alternative-rock slacker hit swirled up then poured out of a cement mixer. It's doomy but also sunny, heavy enough to crush your skull while also drilling its earworm hooks in deep. Turn on, tune in, drop out.

Tomb Mold - "Abysswalker"
Little more than a year after Tomb Mold dropped their crushing debut LP, Primordial Malignity, the Toronto death-metal crew is readying its sophomore record, Manor of Infinite Forms, for release via 20 Buck Spin this June. Their latest single, "Abysswalker," is an absolute bulldozer that mixes classic DM sounds with crust for a wholly hateful and thoroughly enjoyable ride through the infernal.

Cold Cave - "You & Me & Infinity"
After reuniting with his old hardcore band American Nightmare for the outfit's first album in 15 years, Wes Eisold returns to the dance-floor with "You & Me & Infinity," the title track off his synth-goth act Cold Cave's upcoming EP. The song's shimmering synth refrain and minimal gated drums render it more lightweight than previous offerings, though no less dread-laden, thanks to Eisold's baritone croons, which evoke the haunting work of late Joy Division luminary Ian Curtis.

Skeletal Remains - "Parasitic Horrors"
Skeletal Remains were right to dub their new ripper "Parasitic Horrors." Just like a brain-eating amoeba, the latest song off the Californians' third album, Devouring Morality, is one of the rarest, most lethal specimens in the death-metal phylum. Following an opening chug-storm, the group unleashes solo after screaming solo, doling out the killing blows with relish. You'll probably escape "Parasitic Horrors" with your brain technically intact, but your mind? Thoroughly, completely blown.

Skinless - "Line of Dissent"
Skinless know how to ride the line between death metal and humor, staying 100 percent serious in delivery and execution (rimshot!) for their latest track "Line of Dissent." Disgusting, vile and putrid, the song is a perfect example for highlighting the Skinless live methodology: attack with the full force of a punk band, grab 'em by the throat and never let go. The only let down with the new single is the realization that this ripper will be even more nasty on the live stage.