Metal Hammer's Tracks Of The Week: July 12 2024
We don't know what's in the water, but there's a lot of new music flying around to get stuck into this week. Thankfully, we're still hunting high and low to find you the best, brightest and most exciting new metal songs around, so consider this a path through the jungles of noisy anarchy.
First, the results of last week's vote! Japan's metal scene continues to thrive in both popularity and the sheer number of exciting bands on offer as Bridear took third spot on the poll, while Bristol nu metalcore champs took a comfortable second place. The overall winner though was Band-Maid, new single Protect You leaving the competition in the dust. If you missed 'em, check out the singles in our massive playlist below!
We've got a wonderfully diverse selection of sounds to offer you this week. From the brutish death metal of Botswana's Overthrust to Charlotte Wessels going pop-metal (via some operatic stylings), Nails tinkering with speed metal and some fresh new metalcore offerings, we've got a healthy spread of styles and subgenres to explore. As ever, we need you to tell us what songs excite you most, so don't forget to cast your vote in the poll below. Have a great weekend!
Suicidal Tendencies - Nós Somos Família
Suicidal Tendencies might be crossover legends, but these days they’re also something of a supergroup, featuring the talents of former Dillinger Escape Plan guitarist Ben Weinman, ex-Slipknot drummer Jay Weinberg and wunderkind bassist Tye Trujillo. New single Nós Somos Família offers a taste of what these musicians are capable of working together in the well-established ST sound, thrashy breakouts colliding with a sense of punk zeal and excitable instrumentals that capture some of the intense energy the band bring forth when playing live. New album soon? We can but hope.
High Parasite - Grave Intentions
With doom metal legends My Dying Bride seemingly on ice due to unresolved “fractures within the band”, frontman Aaron Stainthorpe is getting his gothic fix elsewhere with new group High Parasite. The group’s debut album Forever We Burn is due September 27 and latest single Grave Intentions shows off a more fiery, venomous sound that the funereal grandeur of his other group, still in line with his past work but offering a fresh spin on it.
Overthrust - Fallen Witches
Botswanan death metal brutes Overthrust released their new album Infected By Myth last week, and now we’ve got an all-new single to sink our teeth into in the form of Fallen Witches. The band’s inclinations towards old school death metal are still front-and-centre, but there’s a freaky, almost jazzy thrash breakout at the heart of the track that tears them away from the usual Deicide and Cannibal Corpse comparisons, some sublime guitar work adding an otherworldly presence to their sound.
Mushroomhead - Prepackaged
Nu metal veterans and all-round masked metal freaks Mushroomhead release their ninth album Call The Devil on August 9th, new single Prepackaged showing they aren’t straying too far from their core sound. Downtuned, clattering riffs and apocalyptic vibes abound, serving a handy reminder that while nu metal certainly brought hip hop influence to the fore in metal, it also opened pathways to the mainstream for death metal inclinations.
Ice Nine Kills x Reel Big Fish - Walking On Sunshine
Given just how successful they’ve been with their Silver Scream releases, it’s easy to forget that when Ice Nine Kills released their debut album almost 20 years ago they had feet firmly in the pop punk and ska worlds. That in mind, the choice to cover 80s pop hit Walking On Sunshine with sunny ska punks Reel Big Fish doesn’t feel so jarring, a handy reminder that there’s so much more to the band than brutish breakdowns and horror movie references.
Wargasm - 70% Dead (ft. Corey Taylor)
Electronically-infused duo Wargasm have been going from strength to strength in recent years, popping up on just about every festival bill on the planet whilst touring with the likes of Limp Bizkit, even getting Fred Durst to guest on the track Bang Ya Head on their 2023 debut Venom. After playing the album in full in a “tank graveyard” earlier this week, the band have unveiled their first new single post-Venom, drafting in Corey Taylor on 70% Dead. Taylor’s iconic snarls boom over dancefloor-filling beats and thumping basslines, the band still sounding utterly unique and contemporary even as they team up with metal legends.
Wind Rose - Rock And Stone
Hold your (pick)axes high, Wind Rose have got a new album on the way! The Italian band have been producing power metal anthems with a sense of joyous fun and high fantasy camp for years now - lets not forget the massive viral success of their cover of Diggy Diggy Hole - so no surprise that new single Rock And Stone is another bombastic jig that folds in elements of folk metal to make the track feel like a beloved meadhall (or Dwarf cavern, as the case may be) favourite. Taken from new album Trollslayer - due October 4, which is also coincidentally when their tour with Powerwolf and Hammerfall kicks off in Germany - the track suggests there’s plenty more jubilant anthems to come.
Charlotte Wessels - Dopamine (ft. Simone Simons)
It’s testament to how adventurous Charlotte Wessels is going with upcoming album The Obsession - due September 20 - that new single Dopamine feels drastically different from other singles The Exorcism and Chasing Sunsets. There’s an almost Amaranthe-like pop metal sensibility to Dopamine that is underpinned by the bubblegum hues of the music video, but there are still shades of Wessels’ symphonic past in the operatic vocals threaded throughout the track, the addition of Epica vocalist Simone Simons cementing a sense of boundless potential and collaboration.
Escuela Grind - Turbulence
Rising extreme metal stars, Escuela Grind flexed some of their sonic capabilities with the DDEEAATTHHMMEETTAALL EP at the start of 2024, but latest single Turbulence offers a vision of where the band could go next on new album Dreams On Algorithms, due October 18. There’s still some healthy stabs of grinding, brutal extremity in the track, but more surprising is the left-turn towards a more metallic hardcore sound throughout the track, the lumbering riff and hooky vocals bringing to mind UK metalcore favourites Employed To Serve, albeit with extreme metal freakouts that show the band aren’t moving too far from their roots.
Nails - Give Me The Painkiller
Nails do speed metal. Which naturally means absolute aural carnage, the grindcore heroes flying forward at about 300mph and clattering just about everything they can get their limbs on in the process. Not long to go before new album Every Bridge Burning arrives now (August 30), but we can already tell the world isn’t ready for the absolute pasting it’s about to receive.
The Jesus Lizard - Alexis Feels Sick
Considering just how much noise rock has intersected with both the metal and alternative world in recent years - its imprint evident in everyone from IDLES to Ken Mode, Empire State Bastard, Lingua Ignota and beyond - a second coming of The Jesus Lizard is long overdue. The 26-year wait for new material is almost over however, new album Rack arriving on September 13 while latest single Alexis Feels Sick shows the band’s minimalist, disquieting brand of weirdness is still as freaky as ever.
Caliban - I Was A Happy Kid Once
German metalcore veterans Caliban have been releasing albums for 25 years now, each release refining their capacity for sublime melodies amidst brutal, vicious sonic assaults. No surprise then that I Was A Happy Kid Once continues that fine tradition, the song’s core built around a crushing main beat that hits like being stomped by a gang of angry bears, giving way to a heartfelt clean chorus that will surely have fans roaring along.
Exist Immortal - Higher Ground
If you prefer your metalcore to come in a technically resplendent package, you’d do well to check out Higher Ground, the latest single from Exist Immortal. There’s an almost Meshuggah-like sense of juddering riffing that forms the track’s core, whilst not losing sight of the radio sensibilities that have made the likes of Architects or While She Sleeps so beloved. Add in guest vocals from Vexed’s Megan Targett and you’ve got a track which is bursting with vitality and ambition. If you’re in the UK, make sure you catch them at Bloodstock on August 9.
