End of November, already?! Granted, there's still the better part of a week to go before we officially tick over into Christmas season, but we're tearing our way ever closer to the end of 2023. That doesn't mean that the new music is slowing any, though - in fact, quite the contrary as bands aplenty announce new albums for 2024.
Before we get into that though, the results of last week's vote! There was a diverse spread of sounds on offer last week, with orchestral metal, industrial, prog and just about everything in between, but grindcore upstarts Escuela Grind tore their way loose to take third spot, coming just behind heavy metal legends Judas Priest. Top spot though went to Five Finger Death Punch, teamed up with Rob Zombie for an all-new version of Burn MF.
This week we've hunted high and low to bring you the best new sounds around, from melodeath supergroup The Halo Effect to NWOBHM legends Saxon, epic French black metal and groovy German hardcore via rap metal. As ever, we need you to tell us which track excites you most, so don't forget to cast your vote below - and a very happy thanksgiving, to those who celebrate!
Saxon - Hell, Fire And Damnation
Brian Blessed doing the intro to a Saxon track - could there be anything more pure in this world? Hell, Fire And Damnation sees the NWOBHM legends continue the course much as they have over the past 48 years, throwing down the trad metal gauntlet with greasy riffs, fist-pumping choruses and tales of angels and demons battling it out. Top class, as ever.
The Halo Effect - The Defiant One
Between the creative comeback of In Flames, massive melodeath tours and the rise of supergroup The Halo Effect, Gothenburg melodeath fans are enjoying a real golden period right now. While The Halo Effect haven’t yet announced when their second album will be with us - signs pointing to some time in 2024 - the band have at least unveiled a “new” song, of a sort, in live staple The Defiant One. Epic, swashbuckling guitars and scream-along snarls mark The Defiant One as quintessential Gothenburg brilliance, giving us plenty to be excited about going into 2024.
Imminence - Death By A Thousand Cuts
Recently announced for Download Festival 2024, Sweden’s Imminence are swinging for the fences when it comes to grandiose, pop-baiting metalcore. Death By A Thousand Cuts builds steady before unleashing emotion like a dam bursting, taking an archetype built by the likes of Bring Me The Horizon and Architects and making it entirely their own.
Equilibrium - Cerulean Skies
Cinematic quality folk metal that wouldn’t seem too out-of-place in a swashbuckling Jerry Bruckheimer movie - death metal growls aside - Equilbrium’s latest single Cerulean Skies is just a little too vicious and po-faced for the oft-cheesy world of power metal but nonetheless straddles the line. There’s no shortage of grandiose melody and deft key-work, the track feeling as close genetically to the likes of Ensiferum as it is Helloween, epic in the truest sense of the word.
Future Static - Plated Gold (ft. Sean Harmanis)
Teaming up with nfellow Aussie -and Ma ke Them Suffer vocalist - Sean Harmanis, Future Static's newest single Plated Gold is at once brutal and expansive, playing with stirring, sing-along melodies and brutal breakdowns to great effect. It's a perfect showcase of the disparate styles that Future Static meld together, striking a balance between enormity and viciousness that makes their debut album Liminality so fresh and exciting.
Suicidal Angels - When The Lions Die
Extolling the virtues of classic thrash, Greece’s Suicidal Angels are making a mad dash at the gates with new song When Lions Die, the first single to be taken from the band’s upcoming Profane Prayer record, due March 1. Insistent, choppy and just a little rough round the edges, When Lions Die is 80s-style thrash at it’s scrappy best, barely suppressing a hyperactivity that gives the whole thing a wild-eyed mania.
Rüyyn - The Flames, The Fallen, The Fury Part II
Epic melodic black metal from France, Rüyyn certainly isn’t lacking for ambition on debut album The Flames, The Fallen, The Fury. Out Dec 1, the record has an overarching concept told in six parts, soundtracked by a bilious mixture of rampaging beats, anguished howls and song structures that build around ebb and flow movements that fold in elements of cosmic prog. It’s an intoxicating mix, the band certainly worth keeping eyes on going forward.
Graphic Nature - Fractured
With their 2023 debut A Mind Waiting To Die, Graphic Nature nailed their nu metal colours to the mast in a crunching beatdown of downtuned guitars and skittering beats. New single Fractured is taking that early 00s influence even further, stomping beats giving way to techno-like beats and keening guitars that show the UK band are drawing on the heavier end of the nu spectrum, more Eyeless than In The End. If this is the first taste of a new record, you can consider us hooked.
Defocus - crooked mind
If you’re disappointed in metalcore’s tendency to shift towards pop territories in recent years, you’ll be glad to hear that newcomers Defocus are taking a baseball bat to the notion. New single Crooked Mind is all titanic stomps and chest-beating scream-alongs, leaning harder on the genre’s hardcore roots with a healthy dose of nu metal chucked into the mix. Plus it has a breakdown like a car crashing into a grinder; what’s not to love?
SLOPE - It’s Tickin’
Rage Against The Machine might not be active right now, but that doesn’t mean their influence isn’t still looming large on a new generation of hip-hop meshing metal bands. SLOPE have certainly adopted RATM’s bouncy, tighter-than-tight rhythm section on new single It’s Tickin’, the sheer chunkiness of their riffs also chucking up shades of hardcore breakthrough stars Turnstile. It’s an infectiously energetic showing from the German band, getting us excited for their upcoming new album Freak Dreams, due February 2.
