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 hardcore, deathcore, thrash 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.
Metallica - "Screaming Suicide"
Even all these years later, Metallica's riffs are more like skyscrapers. Towering, imposing, unbreakably fortified. On a musical level, "Screaming Suicide" is all squealing guitarwork and thrash-metal hustle, but lyrically, it sees James Hetfield tapping into the social taboo of suicidal ideation. In the hook, a personified version of suicide begs to be kept inside the narrator's troubled mind, but Hetfield encourages excising those demons simply by speaking its name — "Don't you keep me inside/Screaming suicide."
Judiciary - "Engulfed"
Judiciary came out of the mid-2010s hardcore scene but managed to sound nothing like Power Trip or Bitter End, instead playing brute-force metallic hardcore akin to Knocked Loose. On their first new song in four years, they sound different. Simply put, "Engulfed" fucking shreds, pulling Judiciary out of hardcore and dropping them into metal, with twisting dual-guitar leads, a bonkers solo and Jamey Jasta-like roars from frontman Jake Collinson that let you understand every fiery word.
Sleep Token - "Granite"
Sleep Token have had a busy year, and we're not even three weeks in to January. Earlier this month, the mysterious U.K. collective dropped two surprise singles, "Chokehold" and "The Summoning," and this week they trickled out another called "Granite." For two-thirds of its runntime you could easily mistake this song for an R&B protege of the WEEKND, and then suddenly the djenty guitars come flowing in, like a tidal wave blasting through a church mid-sermon. Hellyeah.
OV Sulfur- "Earthen"
Lorna Shore aren't the only tear-jerkers in deathcore. On "Earthen," OV Sulfur trade the genre's usual blood and guts for a poignant PSA about children who suffer from rare genetic conditions like Dyskeratosis Congenita. "What kind of god would test a child?" goes its wounded clean hook, while screamer Ricky Hoover snarls at the silent higher powers who watch over their dying flock and do nothing. "I see now I have nothing to give/For no one's in control/And god and faith mean nothing," Hoover bellows during one of several painful climaxes.
Jesus Piece - "Gates of Horn"
Jesus Piece's songs sound like the last thing you hear before getting knocked unconscious on a concrete floor. "Gates of Horn" is a soaking wet molotov cocktail that's guaranteed to ignite a pit into mayhem whenever the Philly bruisers bust it out live. From a technical standpoint, it's a little too quick-footed to be classified as beatdown and a little too straightforward to be deathcore, but so bottom-heavy from the down-tuned guitars and hellfire bellows that any other run-of-the-mill hardcore song sounds brittle in comparison.
Exhibition - "On the Run"
Exhibition pull one of the most timeless tricks in the book in the middle of "On the Run": the instrumentation comes to a halt, the feedback decrescendos to a whimper, and just when you're expecting the next song to start playing, this fucker picks back up even better than before. "I'm on the run/I can't be stopped," the vocalist growls with an out-of-breath gravel that makes him sound like he's hustling across a barren field while he's screaming. The mosh section is also a romp, blending the classic Boston stomp with a New York crossover attitude.
