Metal Hammer's tracks of the week: July 19 2024
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Looking for some great new tunes to take you into the weekend? We've got you covered! The sun is still high in the sky as we pass the midway point of July, and the Autumn calendar is quickly filling up with new releases and tours to get excited about, which naturally also means a heap of new songs to explore.
But first, the results of last week's vote! There was a strong strain of heaviness available last week, but ultimately it seems you just wanted summer bangers to enjoy. Nu metal veterans Mushroomhead nabbed third place with Prepackaged, with a surprise return to ska punk from Ice Nine Kills (and Reel Big Fish) beating it to second. But the overall winner was Charlotte Wessels, who once again trounced the competition with Dopamine, a track that united her with fellow symphonic siren Simone Simons.
Speaking of, Simons is making her own bid for glory this week with solo single R.E.D., but as ever we've got a diverse selection for you to explore. Whether you want stoner (Orange Goblin, Elephant Tree), doom (Hexvessel), alt metal (Fever 333) or something entirely unique (Arka'n Asrafokor) we've got you covered with some of the finest new metal songs around. Naturally, we need your help to decide which is best, so don't forget to cast your vote below - and have an excellent weekend.
Fever 333 - Higher Power
Jason Aalon Butler is no stranger to massive anthems, but we reckon he might've outdone himself on Fever 333's latest single, Higher Power. Explosive and brimming with a sense of irrepressible vitality and rage, the track's bouncy riff and incendiary lyrics ("if we're all equal/how can someone be illegal?") mark it out as a future favourite, showing just how exciting this band are. We can't wait to hear what they'll do on their next album.
Simone Simons - R.E.D.
For over 20 years Simone Simons has been the powerhouse at the front of Epica, but now the vocalist is stepping out in her own right. Granted, Simons' distinctive vocal stylings mean that fans of Epica will likely still love her solo stuff, especially when it comes as gloriously cinematic as R.E.D., the latest single taken from her upcoming solo album Crimson, due August 23 via Nuclear Blast. Operatic vocals meet cyber elements in a proggy, industrial mash-up that shows Simons' solo work is pushing stylistic boundaries.
Zeal & Ardor - Hide In Shade
As we edge closer to the fourth Zeal & Ardor record - GREIF, out August 23 - we're seeing more and more just how much Manuel Gagneux and his co-collaborators are pushing themselves with this next release. The blues/black metal elements are still present, but there's a modernity and cinematic quality to latest single Hide In Shade that captures a sense of rebelliousness that has always lurked at the heart of the project.
Gaerea - Hope Shatters
Mysterious masked entities Gaerea emerged from Portugal in 2018 with a vision of arcane black metal, but three albums later they're expanding their horizons. Stilled rooted in grandiose extreme metal, latest single Hope Shatters strides forth towards more overt death metal realms, explosive and imperious whilst maintaining enough links to their former blackened ways to remain distinct. New album Coma is coming October 25, so it's anyone's guess where they're going elsewhere on the record.
Arka'n Asrafokor - Final Tournament
The five-year wait for a new record from Arka'n Asrafokor has proved well worth it considering just how much the Togolese band have evolved across their two records. Dzikkuh is finally out in the world however, and while the album showcases a mix of everything from thrash and groove to melodeath and nu metal, newest single Final Tournament is more directly by the band's Ewe culture, skittering guitar lines and chants giving way to explosive heaviness.
Distant - The Undying
Raging like an angry god and unleashing an apocalyptic vision of deathcore, Distant's latest single The Undying is a prime showcase of why the Dutch/Slovakian group have become fast favourites in the scene. Leaning hard on the genre's more extreme elements, the band show that ambition need not come at the cost of absolute brutality, delivering a barrage of utterly filthy breakdowns and blast beats that show the subgenre is still in fine health.
Orange Goblin - Ascend The Negative
As Dom Lawson put it in his 9/10 review of Orange Goblin’s new album Science, Not Fiction - “Orange fucking Goblin, baby. It’s not complicated." Across almost 30 years and ten albums, OG's rumbling stoner rock'n'roll has trod a line between Sabbath and Motorhead, and latest single Ascend The Negative is no major departure from that path, a glorious dose of riff-driven thunder that'll have you headbanging and clattering into your mates in no time.
Hexvessel - Under The Lake
After trading folk-horror tinged doom for black metal on 2023's Polar Veil, Finland's Hexvessel are headed back into gloomier territories on new single Under The Lake. The frosty blackened tones are still there, but the track is decidedly more hatched in the vein of epic Scandinavian doom metal than the region's more Satanic subgenres, building a sense of gorgeous desolation around Mat McNerney's vocal that'll have you pining for the fjords [or the frosty plains of Finland, as the case may be].
Elephant Tree - Long Forever
On the more cosmic edges of stoner comes Long Forever, the latest single from fellow London riffers Elephant Tree. Taken from the band's upcoming split with Lowrider, the track is a gorgeously dense wall of psychedelia-hued riffs and vocals that bring to mind the more melancholic Black Sabbath tracks (think Solitude or Planet Caravan). A hefty six-minute slab, the track shows off ET's command of tone and propulsive dynamics perfectly.
Giant Walker - Silhouettes
Gorgeously melancholic, Silhouettes is the title track of Giant Walker's upcoming album and shows off their melodious prog metal stylings. Built around gentle acoustic guitars and a rich, soulful vocal from Steff Fish, the track bursts with anthemic potential, evoking some of the more serene stylings of Damnation-era Opeth with tonal splendour. The band are set to support Future Static in the UK in coming weeks as well as perform at Radar Festival, this track offering a strong case for why you'd be mad to miss them.
Unto Others - Angel Of The Night
Treading just the right line between morbidly romantic and playfully dark, Unto Others are stars of the goth metal revival. With Autumn just around the corner (sorry, summer fans), the band are ushering in those cold months with the announcement of new album Never, Neverland, due September 20. New single Angel Of The Night captures the insidiously catchy melodies that sit at the heart of the band, guitars wailing with dramatic flair in a track that feels like it could come straight from the big screen.
Ancient Settlers - Coven Garden
Relative newcomers in the field of melodeath, Ancient Settlers' second album Oblivion's Legacy arrived back in May in a hail of rumbling drums and rampaging guitars. The real MVP here though is vocalist Argen Death, her voice invoking both the imperious growls that bring to mind the venom of Angela Gossow-era Arch Enemy as well as anthemic cleans that show there's serious crossover appeal in the group.
Revengin - Circle Of Mistakes
It's been over 20 years since symphonic metal exploded into a fully-fledged phenomenon and the genre is still producing exceptional new talent. Case in point: meet Brazil's Revengin, whose latest single Circle Of Mistakes starts out with fiery extreme metal before giving way to the more familiar realms of operatic bombast. There's a vicious, propulsive engine at the heart of the track that helps make this feel fresh and exciting, Revengin certainly worth keeping eyes out for as they prepare for the release of their new album in early 2025.
Death Goals - Knife Bouquet
Wild, weird and wonderful, Death Goals' latest single Knife Bouquet is a careening, unpredictable blast of noise that comes on like a panic attack and gives way to surprisingly hooky melodies. But then, the self-styled queercore duo have been confounding sonic expectations across two albums now, so this new track is in keeping with their adventurous spirit, even drafting in Heck/Haggard Cat vocalist Matt Reynolds for extra flavour.
Assemble The Chariots - Departure
Who doesn't love an epic blast beat? It doesn't come much more epic than the flurry that kicks off Assemble The Chariots' latest single Departure, the Finnish symphonic death metallers gloriously embracing both sides of that subgenre split with epic strings and bilious snarls aplenty. Taken from the freshly released Ephemeral Trilogy Episode 1: Unyielding Night, Departure should be all the persuasion you need to stick that record on good and loud this weekend.
