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, alt-metal, heavy trap 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.
The Acacia Strain - "Untended Graves"
The Acacia Strain's music typically lands in one of two modes: slow, eye-scraping doomcore songs or buffed-out hardcore bangers that sound like a truck bed of logs rolling down a mountainside. "Untended Graves" marries both of those styles, beginning as a pick-it-up 'core gallop and then heaving it downward with leaden chugs that batter the earth while Vincent Bennett's yeti roar sounds off above.
Code Orange - "Shatter"
Code Orange are an impossible band to pin down these days. "Shatter," the new theme they crafted for WWE's Bray Wyatt, isn't heavy hardcore à la "My World," anthemic grunge like "Bleeding in the Blur" or even leather-clad nu-metal like "Out for Blood." It's a frenetic power ballad that fuses Nine Inch Nails-style industrial fuckery with rock-opera theatricality, including a lighters-up chorus where Reba Meyers sounds like she's about to reach out and grab your collar.
$uicideboy$, Germ - "The Serpent and the Rainbow"
After a few projects that leaned into their zonked-out emo-rap side, the ever-prolific $uicideboy$ have returned to mosh-trap form on their new tape with Germ, DIRTYNASTIEST$UICIDE. "The Serpent and the Rainbow" is everything the New Orleans gloom-and-doomers do best, flipping a Three Six Mafia sample into a trunk-knocking beat that channels the Memphis progenitors' creaky menace, while the boys rap with their very best "AK-toting, codeine-toasting" charm.
Scalp - "Jesus is God"
Basically anything Taylor Young has his hands in (God's Hate, Nails, Twitching Tongues, Deadbody, Disgrace — and those are just the band he's played in) is guaranteed to slap, and Scalp's new material is no different. Produced by Young, the California band's latest, "Jesus is God," whips up a thick, black stew of grindcore blasts, guttural death-metal vocals and plenty of "open-this-pit-up" hardcore parts. Identifying the exact genre is a waste of time, just bang your fucking head.
Narrow Head - "Gearhead"
Narrow Head's music harkens back to the mid-Nineties, when bands like Helmet and Hum were blurring the lines between grunge, shoegaze and post-hardcore. The first single from their new album fell on the catchier side of that spectrum, but "Gearhead" is a fucking stomper. The jerky beat is difficult to tap along with, and the guitar riffs surge through the mix like a live wire in a flooded basement. Their heavy side suits them well.
Chrome Waves - "Under the Weight of a Billion Souls"
Post-metal and black metal are tough styles to mix, but Chrome Waves have been making it work for a decade now. This new one channels a song like Deafheaven's "Come Back," casting wolfish screams over gauzy metal atmospheres and slowly pulling back and pushing forward before ultimately erupting into a glorious swing where every element coexists in harmony — including that tasteful-ass slide guitar lick.
