It's Friday. You know what that means: new music! We've spent the last few days amassing the best new metal songs we can find to send you flying through the weekend and beyond, with everything from returning melodic death metal heroes to young metalcore starlets to the latest cut from a certain bimbocore queen. You know the drill: get stuck in and vote for your favourite.
First, though, last week's results: despite some solid competition from nu metallers Blind Channel and deathcore brutes Slaughter To Prevail, heavy metal legends Accept proved that sometimes you just can't beat a classic formula, storming the vote with latest single Humanoid. Congrats, lads! But that was then and this is now, so here are the 12 new metal songs we consider worthy of your ears this week.
Full Of Hell - Doors To Mental Agony
Masters of grindcore, powerviolence and other genres with horrific names, Full Of Hell have announced their comeback with sixth album Coagulated Bliss. Doors To Mental Agony is the first preview of the impending record and, if it’s anything to go by, the full thing will make you shit yourself. This is 96 seconds of ferocious groove and unrepentant snarling, not to mention all that jagged guitar playing. Gloriously awful stuff.
Scene Queen - Finger
A sexually-empowered bop written about her own queer awakening, Finger is another fabulous Scene Queen slice of glittery, sugar-sweet pop hooks and meaty metal breakdowns, driven by a video that's about as subtle as a brick to the kneecap but with a message that is heartfelt and important. "I wanted something to make everyone feel included because sexuality and pleasure is something everyone can and should be able to relate to," says the woman herself. Too right!
Alpha Wolf - Whenever You're Ready
Taken from the Aussie metalcore favourites' imminent new studio album Half Living Things, Whenever You're Ready is a shimmering, anthemic burst of post-Architects metal that's packing big-ass riffs, heartstring-pulling melodies and sombre lyrics dealing with the fallout of losing people we have that special, undefinable connection with in our lives. A big, cathartic metal banger, basically.
Burton C Bell - Anti-Droid
Former Fear Factory frontman Burton is back, and he's doing pop punk! Just kidding: Anti-Droid sounds like it was scraped straight from the soundtrack of a Terminator film (one of the good ones, don't worry). A moody, dystopian, slow-marching industrial crusher, this might not be a full-throttle as Fear Factory's more propulsive material, but it's a wonderfully atmospheric new shade from our Burt all the same.
Night Verses feat Brandon Boyd - Glitching Prisms
Only strengthening the hype for next week’s album, Every Sound Has A Color In The Valley Of Night Part 2, post-metal technicians Night Verses have released a new track featuring vocals from Incubus frontman Brandon Boyd. Glitching Prisms is a mellower offering than usual from the California trio. However, it’s a tone that perfectly suits both them and Boyd, who croons beautifully atop some shimmering guitars and dainty drums.
Dark Tranquillity - The Last Imagination
Gothenburg melodeath idols Dark Tranquillity have returned from the precipice with their first piece of new music in four years, The Last Imagination. As has long been the form for the Mikael Stanne-fronted six-piece, the song is an infectious yet dark anthem, dripping in gothic drama. Stanne’s roars contrast gorgeously with the keys of Martin Brändström, making this a tantalising first taste of next album Endtime Signals, out August 16.
Seeyouspacecowboy – Respite For A Tragic Tale / Silhouettes In Motion
Combining mathcore, punk and metal with bold LGBTQ+ messaging, Seeyouspacecowboy have never done stuff by other people’s rules. The San Diego outlaws kept that rebellious spirit alive this week: not only did they release two singles as one, but those songs drop from a symphonic sonata to whirring metalcore. Pick up new album Coup De Grâce on April 19 for even more batshit brilliance (as well as a Courtney LaPlante guest spot).
Artificial Language - Rain Follows
A juddering shot of prog metal that brings everything to mind from Between The Buried And Me to Protest The Hero, Artificial Language's new single comes from the Fresno collective's upcoming EP Distant Glow, a concept piece telling the story of a father and son wrapped up in a strange cult conspiracy in a post-apocalyptic world. It's as wild as it sounds, and it has the music to match.
Tyr - Hammered
Fancy a big ol' slab of heroic power metal with a video that looks like it was shot on the set of The Northman? Have Tyr got a track for you! The Faroe Islands' finest return with Hammered, an epic metal anthem with an accompanying promo video that was shot in their stunning homeland. Sumptuous drone shots of dazzling mountain terrain? Check. Galloping horses? Check. A murky blacksmith? Check. Mysterious cloaked figures? Check! Peak Viking vibes all round.
Fleshgod Apocalypse - Pendulum
Pendulum is Fleshgod Apocalypse’s first new music since singer/guitarist Francesco Paoli suffered nerve damage in a rock climbing accident three years ago. The symphonic death metal rager tackles that time head on, the frontman roaring, “I’m falling down, straight to fucking hell!” over rapid-fire percussion. It could well be the lead single of an as-yet-unannounced sixth album, as Paoli teases, “Pendulum is just the opening chapter of a bigger story.”
SETYØURSAILS - Lately
"I can't make my demons shut up," laments frontwoman Jules Mitch on SETYØURSAILS' latest single, a mournful but incredibly earwormy new offering from the fast-rising German metalcore troupe. "Coming to terms with your demons is never easy, but writing a ballad about it and publishing it is even harder," says Mitch of writing the song's lyrics. Well, we're glad she did - Lately will be stuck in your head for days, guaranteed.
El Moono - Haunting
UK alt-metal up-and-comers El Moono have released the next single from their impending debut album The Waking Sun, out May 10. Haunting is an aptly titled stoner/post-hardcore piece, which creeps through discordant guitar into a shoegaze-inspired chorus and was mastered by Acle Kahney of Tesseract. The band wrote the track from the perspective of one of their partners, its lyrics addressing body dysmorphia and the impact it has on one’s mental health.
