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.
Architects - "Doomsday"
"Doomsday," the newest single from Architects, arrives under decidedly bittersweet circumstances: The atmospheric cut was originally conceived by Tom Searle, the band's late guitarist, and marks their first song since he passed away from cancer last year. And yet, for all the sorrow inherent in its title, "Doomsday" is ultimately a tribute, doubling as thrilling, prog-spiked battle cry: the sound of a band dead set on stylistic and spiritual transcendence.
Iron Monkey - "9-13"
This week, underground sludge icons Iron Monkey ended nearly 20 years of radio silence with "9-13" — the roiling title track to the Brits' forthcoming album, their first offering since the death of frontman J.P. Morrow in 2002. Co-founding guitarist Jim Rushby has since taken up vocal duties. Together with longtime guitarist Steve Watson and drummer Scott Briggs (of Chaos U.K. and My War), the group picks up where 1998's Our Problem left off, fervently bridging the gap between crust punk, sludge rock and doom metal. It's like they never left.
Chelsea Wolfe - "The Culling"
It seems Chelsea Wolfe may have saved the best single from her new album, Hiss Spun, for last. Between its chasmic, multilayered arrangement — the type of brooding, melodramatic soundscape David Lynch would drool over — its cunningly crafted dynamic arc, and its introspective lyricism, "The Culling" acts as testament to the California singer-guitarist's masterful grasp of sonic grandeur, as well as her unflinching honesty.
Arch Enemy - "First Day in Hell"
For the most part, Arch Enemy's new album Will to Power is a monument to maximalism, all thunderstruck riffs, soaring refrains and screaming melodrama. "First Day in Hell," however, represents somewhat of an outlier. It's slower and doomier than the group's typical fare, stripped bare of their usual ascendant chaos. Considering bandleader Alissa White-Gluz's recent revelations about the song's lyrics (she wrote "First Day in Hell" in honor of her grandparents, who both survived the Holocaust), the change of pace is understandable.
Toothgrinder - "The Shadow"
Last year, Toothgrinder set a new standard for 21st-century metalcore with their excellent debut album, Nocturnal Masquerade, a head-spinning, genre-defiant noise machine. But will they succumb to the sophomore slump when they drop its follow-up, Phantom Amour, later this fall? With the arrival of their new ripper "The Shadow," we've got our answer: Fuck. No. The New Jersey outfit pirouette effortlessly between limber grooves and teeth-clenching breakdowns, moving like a bunch of bloodthirsty, competition-ready ballerinas.
Electric Wizard - "See You in Hell"
To listen to Electric Wizard is to take a nice, long soak in a gilded bathtub that's filled to the brim with boiling-hot blood. However strange it may seem to label the British titans' racket as "relaxing," falling under their sludgy spell is a pleasure through and through, particularly on "See You in Hell," the hypnotic first taste of the doomsayers' upcoming Wizard Bloody Wizard LP. A six-minute slab of stoner rock, the song gives Dopethrone's glazy-eyed pallette a sprightly update, spilling over with riffs that creep like toxic molasses: in other words, business as usual for Electric Wizard.
