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 death metal, metalcore, sludge 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.
Heriot - "Demure"
Until this point, Heriot had only ever dabbled in bite-sized blasts of infernal metalcore. At five minutes, "Demure" is two to three times the length of most of their previous material, but it never overstays its welcome. As sludgy and knuckle-dragging as it is scorching, Heriot are only getting gnarlier and more ambitious with each release. We're here for it.
Kim Dracula - "Seventy Thorns" (Feat. Jonathan Davis)
You know you've got a truly exciting song on your hands when an appearance by Korn frontman Jonathan Davis isn't even the most memorable part. Like all of their tracks, Kim Dracula's "Seventy Thorns" is 70 batshit ideas rolled up into one. Nu-metal, thrash, proto-metal and industrial are among the styles they hopscotch between in a mere four minutes, and they're so confident in their genre-jumping that it doesn't even feel cluttered. Just bold and breathless.
The Acacia Strain - "Fresh Bones"
"Drink the blood eat the skin/trapped in the holes we dug ourselves in." Yup, the Acacia Strain are back in action with "Fresh Bones," the pummeling preview from their upcoming LP, Step Into the Light. In a shake-up to their usual lumbering pace, there're some flashes of grindcore hyper-speed in this ripper, which only make the slow, heavy trudges that much gnarstier when they come around.
Frozen Soul - "Morbid Effigy"
Frozen Soul make death metal you can mosh to. "Morbid Effigy" is the Texas band's fearsomly frigid first single from their sophomore LP, Glacial Domination, and there's not a single moment in its runtime that wouldn't make for an opportune soundtrack to slugging someone across the face. Dying Fetus screamer John Gallagher even makes an appearance at one point, and his deep, gurgly bellows sound right at home in Frozen Soul's blistering snow kingdom.
Predatory Void - "Endless Return to the Kingdom of Sleep"
On "Endless Return to the Kingdom of Sleep," new Century Media signees Predatory Void whip up a brutal storm of post-metal, sludge, metalcore and black-metal. Landing somewhere between the stormy trudges of Amenra and the furious gusts of modern-day Converge, the way the song teeters between slower and faster passages is exhilarating, and the emotion is tense from beginning to end.
Jesus Piece - "Tunnel Vision"
According to Jesus Piece frontman Aaron Heard, "Tunnel Vision is about "the renewed drive for success that comes along with being a new parent." Maybe so, but to us, it sounds like a song for clobbering the shit out of someone. The Philly band are unmatched at summoning boxing ring levels of violent aggression in their music, and so far, every single we've heard from their long-awaited new album, So Unknown, has been a lights-out type of jam.
