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, death metal, post-punk 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.
Slipknot - "Bone Church"
"Bone Church" inverts every element of a "typical" Slipknot song. There's almost a full minute of muted feedback and dusty accordion squeezes before we even hear a single guitar, and then another 45 seconds until Corey Taylor's dusky croon materializes like a ghost appearing in a misty forest. This rare one-off single from the Iowa Nine wasn't recorded during the same sessions that spawned their unreleased "Radiohead vibe" album, Look Outsidse Your Window, but its minimalist composition and meandering structure sure sounds like the 'Knot throwing all of their usual songwriting patterns and metallic conventions to the wind.
Year of the Knife - "Victim"
Year of the Knife have been one of the hottest bands on the bludgeoning side of hardcore for a minute now, and though their new surprise-released EP, Dust to Dust, presents a pretty major lineup change within the band (vocalist Tyler Mullen has left the group, with bassist Madison Watkins taking his place behind the mic), their popularity likely hasn't even peaked yet. YOTK have never sounded dirtier and nastier than they do on a track like "Victim," where Watkins' barbed-wire-slicing-skin vocals maul with the death-metally blast-beats and brutal breakdowns. This is a new beginning.
.gif from god - "a kiss from every hornet"
For the last several years, .gif from god have been refining a sound that brings together the eccentric emotionality of screamo with the flesh-burning instrumentation of mathcore. The vocals on "a kiss from every hornet" have the scrape-y, screechy sassines of a band like SeeYouSpaceCowboy, but the titanium-enforced riffage and back-breaking percussion hit way harder than your average white-belt progenitors.
VOSH - "Pray"
"Pray" might be the catchiest song we've heard all year. Like, even hookier and more melodically alluring than whatever the latest Hot 100 chart-topper is. At the same time, the first single from D.C. industrial newcomers, VOSH, is incredibly dark and mystifying, with a throbbing drumbeat and surging, metallic guitar riff that sloshes together all the right goth-club reference points in a way that feels vital, not redundant.
Dying Fetus - "Unbridled Fury"
Dying Fetus still haven't formally announced the new album they promise is coming sometime in 2023, but they've dribbled out another single to feed our growing impatience. "Unbridled Fury" is expert-tier death metal. It's not the most virtuosic or the most caveman-like; it's the best of both those worlds. The main riff is so fucking big and fun, but they never let you get bored of a single part, pivoting to something new every 45 seconds that's somehow even more decimating than what your ears just got attuned to.
GEL - "Attainable"
In 2022, GEL got so big that they transcended the hardcore basement circuit, and now their long-awaited 2023 debut LP is one of the most anticipated albums of the year — in every corner of the hardcore's knotty multiverse. Their chaos-inducing live shows are already spoken of with mystical reverence, but the songcraft on tracks like "Attainable" are why people are showing up. Their signature is chorus-laden vocals roaring over red-hot guitar tones and blown-out drums; a sound that could've emerged in any period throughout hardcore's 40-year history and still hit like a proper smack in the face.
