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.
Jesus Piece - "Curse of the Serpent"
Philadelphia's Jesus Piece have returned and the fangs are out for new single "Curse of the Serpent," the first taste of their forthcoming Southern Lord LP Only Self. It's metallic hardcore at it's finest, nodding to Disembodied, Bloodlet and others, winking at death metal, but ultimately maintaining it's own identity. There's nothing subtle about "Curse ..." — it's pure hatred and fury for it's entire running time. Exactly how we want it.
Scars on Broadway - "Dictator"
If you're a long-suffering System of a Down fan hoping against hope for new music from the band — as the group's own guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Daron Malakian says he is — this may be as close as you'll ever get, and it's pretty damn close. Malakian sat on the forthcoming second album from his solo project Scars on Broadway for six years, thinking he might want to use some of the songs for System if they ever agreed to record again, and it's not hard to imagine "Dictator," the title cut from the LP, appearing on a hypothetical SOAD comeback record. It's weird and outraged, political yet personal, catchy but mystifying in all the right and familiar ways, and when the song hits its war cry of a breakdown complete with dual-layered sing/scream vocals, it's enough to make any System fan very, very happy, if with a tinge of bitter sweetness, too.
Ghost - "Faith"
Ghost's uptick in poptimist grandeur on album No. 4 serves the band's proto-metal well; to paraphrase Dan Epstein's review of the new Prequelle, mastermind Tobias Forge's formidable attention to detail renders the group's melodrama more accessible, and their fiendish mission more achievable — especially on "Faith," a rugged highlight off the LP's opening half that leavens the usual Blue Öyster Cult worship with black-metal yowls and blistering thrash solos. Think of it as the band's answer to Metallica's "Sad but True," just way more calculated. Not that we'd blaspheming the Clergy or anything, but Ghost would be stupid not to make this one a single.
Pouya - "Stick Out Ft. Ghostemane"
This might ruffle some feathers, but hear us out: The SoundCloud rap scene is a lot more metal than non–hip-hop-heads give it credit for. Everything about the genre, from the lo-fi mixing and self-loathing lyrics, to the grungy beats and polarizing nature of its figureheads — most notably XXXTEntacion, whose alleged history of assault and violence basically renders him the movement's Varg Vikernes — screams underground. Enter Pouya and Ghostemane, two tatted-up MCs who take inspiration from metal and industrial bands, rather than just trap and cloud rap. (The latter has cited Maryland noise-grind heavyweights Full of Hell as an influence, just FYI.) Their new collaboration, "Stick Out," doesn't contain any blast beats, but does it matter? Absolutely not — this shit slaps.
God Alone - "Milk Drinkers"
Yes, God Alone is a noise-rock band featuring Mike Hranica and Kyle Sipress from the Devil Wears Prada, but before you look down your nose at the idea of metalcore dudes playing music in line with the Jesus Lizard or Young Widows, realize that these musicians know exactly what they're doing. "Milk Drinkers" shows Hranica's voice at its weirdest and grossest, alternating between controlled and disgusted over a thick miasma of guitars. It's maybe the strangest thing Rise Records has ever been a part of, which is to say that it's super fucked up and super fine.
Spine - "Your Reason"
KC's Spine return with another barking, furious hardcore single bursting at the seams with high-velocity riffs, pick-slides, divebombs, beyond-ugly breakdowns and hooks, hooks and more hooks. Anchored by a bruising half-speed tail section, "Your Reason" may be the band's hardest offerings yet — an anthem for disenchanted subway riders and headwalkers alike.
