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 metalcore, hardcore, tech-death and more that have been on heavy rotation at Revolver HQ. For your listening pleasure, we've also compiled the songs in an ever-evolving Spotify playlist
Year of the Knife - "No Love Lost"
After thrashing and burning through eight metallic hardcore sprints, Year of the Knife's new album concludes with a ferocious death-metal slow-burn. "No Love Lost" is the closest the Delaware unit have come to sounding like Bolt Thrower, unleashing soul-reaping riffage, merciless double-bass assaults and vocalist Madi Watkins' chilling howls.
Its death-march ending is laced with spine-tingling croons that sound like a ghost rising up from the carnage. It's the most foreboding Year of the Knife have ever sounded.
Chelsea Wolfe - "Whispers in the Echo Chamber"
"Dusk," the first single from Chelsea Wolfe's new album, was a flickering goth ballad that steadily grew to a roaring fire and then receded back to smoldering ash. Comparatively, "Whispers in the Echo Chamber" is a raging inferno.
Above a throbbing bassline, the singer-songwriter intones about phenomena "beyond reality" in between pecks of earth-rattling drum detonations. By the end, a chugging guitar riff is raining hellfire while Wolfe chants, "More, more, more" like a shrieking worshiper offering everything to some dark deity.
Siiickbrain - "Pyschopath"
Siiickbrain is a metal-loving alt-pop shape-shifter who's collab'd with everyone from Willow Smith to Skrillex to Pussy Riot. Her new solo cut, "Psychopath," throws all of her sonic explorations into one chaotic package, and it somehow clicks together.
The verses showcase her painful screamo yelps over clattering industrial soundscapes, and then it takes a 180-degree turn in the chorus, morphing into an auto-tuned trance bop that sounds more than a little like Breathe Carolina and 3OH!3. Shit's catchy as fuck, though!
Job for a Cowboy - "The Forever Rot"
Deathcore pioneers Job for a Cowboy haven't actually sounded very deathcore for about 15 years now, and that's OK. The newly reformed band are gearing up to drop their first album in a decade, and if it sounds anything like "The Forever Rot," then we'll be more than satisfied.
The near-seven-minute tech-death epic is stuffed with noxiously heavy sections that brush up against death-doom, melodeath and even straight-up prog. The bass playing is utterly gnarly, and you might even find yourself hollering along during its epic finale.
Islander - "Witch"
Islander have been straddling the line between nu-metal, metalcore and Nineties post-hardcore for over a decade now, and they've still got the juice on "Witch."
The celestial hook will immediately pique the interest of Chino Moreno devotees, while the groovy, bouncy verses sound like Glassjaw if they came up on mid-2000s metalcore.
Levels - "Pulse"
The entirety of "Pulse" is a sleek, tuneful dose of metalcore that fans of I Prevail, Bad Omens and/or Silent Planet could get down with. But there's one section in particular that feels like it's primed for YouTube reaction videos.
About two-thirds of the way in, the screamed bridge builds up, the tense electronic swooshes climax, and in drops a fat, squelchy djent breakdown that just envelopes every inch of your sound system. It knocks. It slaps. It whips. However you want to say it, "Pulse" delivers.
