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, shoegaze, hyperpop 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.
Drain - "Watch You Burn"
Drain dropped their thrilling debut, California Cursed, back in April 2020, but even the pandemic couldn't squash the hype for these Bay Area hardcore miscreants. Their new single, "Watch You Burn," is a caffeinated banger that cruises between fizzy crossover thrash, lumbering hardcore and good ole fashioned punk rock.
Me and That Man - "Got Your Tongue"
For a few years now, Behemoth frontman Adam Nergal Darski has been making tongue-in-cheek outlaw country in a band called Me and That Man. Their new single, "Got Your Tongue," is a gun-totin' rockabilly charmer with punk bite and playful lyrics about a person who's being manipulated by Satan himself for nefarious purposes. It's about as salacious as an Elvis tune in 2021, and that's what makes it so fun.
Rina Sawayama - "Enter Sandman"
The singles we've heard from Metallica's upcoming Blacklist covers compilation have been hit or miss, but Rina Sawayama's take on "Enter Sandman" is a goddamn stunner. The Japanese-British pop star flipped one of the most ubiquitous metal songs of all time into an industrialized disco stomper that sounds like Donna Summer rocking out on the bed of an 18-wheeler loaded with Mad Max artillery.
Memphis May Fire - "Bleed Me Dry"
Matty Mullins sounds fucking pissed on his band's new song "Bleed Me Dry." "So, say you hate me/ Go on and blame me," the Memphis May Fire vocalist sneers before going in for the kill shot, "When push comes to shove and bend comes to break/Nothin' you say matters anyway." Musically, it makes good use of the nu-metal bounce and Chester Bennington-indebted vocal moves that didn't always work on their 2018 LP, Unbroken.
Nothing - "Amber Gambler"
Nothing's 2020 album, The Great Dismal, is a triumph of modern shoegaze, so even the b-sides sound like lead singles. "Amber Gambler" immediately nose-dives into the Philly band's signature churn of quilted riffs and smoky vocals, which eventually get dressed in an ornate string arrangement and delay-drenched guitar quakes that float like morning fog. The textures this band conjures are unrivaled.
daine - "Salt" Feat. Oli Sykes
On her first handful of singles, rising hyperpop singer daine loomed in the tall shadow of her obvious idol, avant-garde pop star Charli XCX. Her latest offering, "Salt," sounds like a breakthrough. Featuring Bring Me the Horizon's taste-making frontman Oli Sykes, the two douse their voices in auto-tune and link up over compressed guitar warbles, booming 808s and squelchy synths. Amid all the chaos is a beautiful, yearning pop song.
Escuela Grind - "That Which Does Not Bend Must Break"
Escuela Grind's latest single begins with screeching feedback that sounds like it's coated in glitter. It's an alien beautification of the quintessential grindcore intro passage, but don't let it fool you into thinking the Massachusets band are here to play. The minute-and-twenty-second ripper assaults the listener with discombobulating drum patterns and staccato guitar chugs, and then the 'core comes in when vocalist Katerina Economou bellows, "Fuck the world/Your god isn't real," with enough force to level an office park.
