Metal Hammer's tracks of the week: August 30 2024
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Autumn is upon us! Or at least, it certainly feels like it as pumpkin spice pops back up on menus and stores everywhere start stocking up on Halloween and Christmas decorations for the months ahead. Of course, it's a bit early to be thinking about Christmas (or even Halloween) just yet, so let us offer you something a bit fresher: the best new metal songs this week.
First, the results of last week's vote! There were glimmers of autumnal gloom from the likes of Unto Others and Oceans Of Slumber, but it turns out that a healthy dose of disco metal is just what was needed as Turmion Katilot took third spot on our reader's poll. Above them were newcomers Gore., whose ferocious Babylon clearly struck a note, but the overall champions for the week were nu metal revivalists Uncured, their fast-flow track Manifesto suggesting we should all keep eyes on them come 2025.
This week we've gone deep into the territories of heaviness, exploring everything from grandiose black metal to symphonic deathcore, death metal-infused nu metal and beyond. As ever, we need you to tell us which songs excite you most, so don't forget to cast your vote below - and have an excellent weekend!
Gojira - Mea Culpa (Ah! ?a ira!)
Undoubtedly one of the biggest stories in metal this year - aside from perhaps the Linkin Park countdown - French extreme metallers Gojira playing the Olympics opening ceremony in Paris. So with the Paralympics beginning this week, Gojira's rendition of French revolutionary song Mea Culpa (Ah! ?a ira!) has now been released onto streaming platforms, operatic vocals mixing with explosive blastbeats for a stunning and undeniably potent release.
Better Lovers - Future Myopia
While the loss of Every Time I Die still feels like an aching chasm in the hardcore sphere, the fact it has given us Better Lovers is surely a salve on that wound. After last year's God Made Me An Animal EP, now Greg Puciato and co. are swinging hard with upcoming debut album Highly Irresponsible - due October 25 - latest single Future Myopia chucking up the obvious reference points (ETID meets Dillinger Escape Plan), but also tapping into some of the wild-eyed mania of heavier Faith No More fare and even a smidge of Mastodon's oddly anthemic vocal melodies. Weird in the very best way.
Hanabie - [花冷え。] - メタ盛るフォーゼ! (Metamorphose!)
With shades of nu metal, ravecore and metalcore, Hanabie's choice to categorise themselves under the "Harajuku-core" makes perfect sense considering the Japanese group clearly exist in a category of one. New single [花冷え。] - メタ盛るフォーゼ! (Metamorphose!) is a heady showcase of the unique styles that the band employ as part of their sound, contrasting snarling, Kittie-like growls with unmistakable j-metal melodic choruses that add an infectious anthemic quality to the song. If you wanted more metal in your Babymetal, this is one you won't want to miss.
Wind Rose - To Be A Dwarf
Talk about timing. Italian "dwarf metal" champions Wind Rose might have been around for over a decade now, but it surely won't have escaped their notice that their latest single - the jaunty To Be A Dwarf - is arriving the same week that Amazon's Rings Of Power returns, bringing with it a chance to point out how much metal clearly loves Middle Earth. Granted, the Italians aren't so on-the-nose as to crib directly from Tolkien, but To Be A Dwarf is nonetheless a folk-styled metal anthem designed for massive sing-alongs and pure, unabashed glee, new album Trollslayer surely promising more of the same when it arrives on October 4.
Charlotte Wessels - The Crying Room
With just a few weeks to go before her new album The Obsession arrives on September 20, Charlotte Wessels has offered another glimpse at the multi-faceted direction she is taking on this new release. The anthemic, symphonic stylings of her years with Delain are still present and correct, but there's also a fiery directness that captures the momentum Wessels clearly wants to carry forward, especially as she prepares for her first full tour as a solo artist in October and November.
Zeal & Ardor - Kilonova
With GREIF now out in the world, Zeal & Ardor continue to prove themselves as one of the most creatively fertile groups in contemporary metal. Latest single Kilonova shows how the band's sound has evolved beyond its blues/black metal roots, a tight and frenetic track which thrums with the threat of an extreme metal breakout but maintains its melodic core, retaining the distinct tones the band have explored before whilst feeling new and fresh.
156/Silence - Product Placement
Few metal subgenres have evolved quite so drastically as metalcore over the last 20 years, but if you're hankering for some prime mid-00s style cuts from the genre you'd do well to check out Product Placement, the latest single from 156/Silence. Tapping into a crossover with post-hardcore, the song makes great use of emotionally resonant vocal melodies and stomping beats before giving way to an almighty breakdown that'll scratch the itch for Atreyu and Killswitch Engage style composition in the modern era. Keep your eyes out for the band's new album People Watching, due September 13.
NightWraith - Perpetual Night
Striking a delicate balance between the baroque stylings of a band like Dimmu Borgir and the more grandiose melodies of Inexorum, Denver's NightWraith brilliantly capture the majesty of black metal on new single Perpetual Night. Drawing lyrical inspiration from 1927 sci-fi movie Metropolis - clips of which pop up in the music video - the track is a showcase of bald ambition and songwriting craft, playing up to the underground's most aspirational aspects, hinting at bigger things to come on new album Divergence, out September 13.
Obscure Discernment - Transcending The Void
Sticking to the realms of grandiose extreme metal, albeit in a much less melodic sense, Obscure Discernment's latest single Transcending The Void is an exceptional slab of symphonically-underpinned deathcore, swinging a pendulum between widdly, neoclassical guitars and straight-up slamming brutality. It's gloriously enormous and shows just how far deathcore has come over the last decade, no longer confined to basements and small clubs and threatening to equal metal's most bombastic upper echelons.
Wolfbrigade - Life Knife Death
Crust punk veterans Wolfbrigade have always had at least one leg in the realms of extreme metal, their sound dredging up the buzzsaw guitars of Entombed and a near-black metal ferocity (with a touch of Napalm Death) in the vocals. Little surprise then that new single Life Knife Death is more of the same, a no-frills battery of riffs and harsh, throat-shredding vocals that'll have you wanting to pogo through a brick wall head first. The title-track of the band's new album, you can expect plenty more of this visceral nastiness on September 13.
The Crown - Churchburner
Also hailing from Sweden - and with their own decades-long legacy - The Crown have been a reliably ferocious force in death metal for almost 30 years. After the imperious flex that was 2021's Royal Destroyer, they're staying the course for forceful brutality on new single Churchburner, the first single from new album Crown Of Thorns, out October 11. This is pure Scandi-death metal bliss; buzzing guitars, throaty, anthemic snarls and an unyielding sense of heft that threatens some serious damage to your neck.
Oceans - Spit
Nu metal might be best remembered for bringing the worlds of hip hop and metal together, but the genre was also crucial in bringing death metal sensibilities to the mainstream. It's a fact not lost on Germany's Oceans, the band combining chuggy riffs and rapped vocals with all-out extremity, suddenly eruptions of blastbeats and 'bleghs' waving the flag for a fresh take on the nu metal revival.
Within Destruction - Demon Child
Hailing from Slovakia, Within Destruction started life as deathcore heavies before shifting gears in more recent years to a more nu metalcore-friendly sound. There's still shades of that early heft in the band's more recent material, but new single Demon Child represents a serious step towards mainstream-bothering sensibilities, hooky choruses bursting forth from a bed of electronica-underpinned heft.
