2022 is already shaping up to be insanely stacked for new releases. It can all be a bit overwhelming trying to keep up with everything coming in, so we figured we’d do the dirty work for you, collating the ten best new songs each week and sticking them into a handy round-up.
From The Hu to Five Finger Death Punch, Lorna Shore to Stray From The Path, we’ve picked out ten of the finest cuts of metal to pass by our desks this week. And you can tell us which is your favourite – just cast your vote at the bottom and check back in next week to see who came out on top.
Five Finger Death Punch – IOU
Alongside the previously released AfterLife, IOU paints a fuller picture of where Five Finger Death Punch are going on their upcoming album of the same name, due August 19. The classic components of FFDP are all there, but some of the bull-headed bombast has been stripped back, suggesting a more nuanced version of the band than we’ve ever heard before.
The Hu - This Is Mongol
We might not have a release date yet for The Hu’s second album, but the Mongolian folk metal troupe are galloping back with This Is Mongol, trading in the Gobi Desert for the Mojave in a typically epic video. More urgent than anything on The Gereg, the song answers the question nobody knew to ask - “what would Mongolian folk-thrash sound like?”
Oceans Of Slumber - Heart Of Stone
Between its thrumming electro pulse and anchored, powerful riff, there’s more than a whiff of Lost Boys style goth rock to Heart Of Stone. While Oceans Of Slumber have always painted in shades of darkness, their new album Starlight And Ash takes on a whole new dimension of brooding, soulful miserablism – this song’s breakout moments like falling backwards into an ice-cold pool.
Motionless In White - Slaughterhouse
After a couple of more melodically-inclined singles, Motionless In White are back in full, snarling form with Slaughterhouse. The blaring electro is delightfully obnoxious, while the guest appearance of Knocked Loose vocalist Bryan Garris yelps and chomps like a rabid dog let off the chain, feeling like a nice throwback to MiW’s earlier material.
Lorna Shore - Sun//Eater
Though deathcore hit a stylistic cul-de-sac years ago, Lorna Shore continue to be the genre’s salvation. The symphonic elements of Sun//Eater bring a sense of enormity more in-keeping with an Architects or Bring Me The Horizon, but the absolutely disgusting beatdown is pure deathcore nastiness through-and-through.
Polyphia - Playing God
Jazz/prog metal crossover merchants Polyphia dust down their nylon-stringed guitars on their first track since 2019 – a flamenco shred jam co-produced by (wait for it!) Kanye West associate Johan Lenox, Doja Cat sidekick Y@K and Migos producer JUDGE. It’s a tastefully cool as those armchairs they’re lounging on in the video.
Illenium - Shivering (feat. Spiritbox)
Teaming up with DJ Illenium, Spiritbox’s ear for massive melodic hooks is put to superb use on Shivering. By and large, the track could fit with anything else on Eternal Blue, but around the mid-way point the instrumentals enter full EDM territory without sounding needlessly gimmicky (as with the dubstep/metal crossover trend a few years back).
Bleed From Within - Flesh And Stone
Backed up by the Parallax Orchestra, Flesh And Stone is Bleed From Within’s heaviest song to date, adding a sense of symphonic extreme metal grandeur to their muscular, riff-driven sound. After last year’s main stage spots at Download Pilot and Bloodstock (and an arena run with Bullet For My Valentine), this is exactly what BFW need to take things up to the next level.
Cave In - Reckoning
The first Cave In song written entirely by guitarist Adam McGrath (following the tragic passing of bassist Caleb Scofield in 2018), Reckoning trades in the angular post-hardcore crunch of the band’s early material for a soulful acoustic number that wouldn’t be out of place in Alice In Chains 2.0.
Stray From The Path - III
30 years on from Killing In The Name and bands can still sing about the same shit without it sounding outdated. Depressing, yes, but Stray From The Path’s aggro hardcore at least makes it feel like you can walk through walls while the world burns around.
