There's a chill in the air - and not just because we're excited to finally have Ville Valo return for his first UK tour in five years, since the demise of HIM. Still, even as winter flings some final throes of despair at us, our eyes are firmly set ahead on all the brilliant new music still to come this year.
But first, the results of last week's poll! Despite storming the gates with an imperious new song, it might come as a surprise that Metallica's throne was usurped in the fan vote, If Darkness Had A Son falling behind nu metal newcomers BLACKGOLD and their new single Way Out, while Germany's heavy metal heroes Powerwolf took a very admirable third place with No Prayer At Midnight.
As ever, we've got a diverse selection for you to explore with the return of Devildriver, as well as all-new music from Employed To Serve, Therapy? and Fit For An Autopsy. We've even got some new blood in the mix, with another offering from the Sid Wilson/Ross Robinson affiliated Swollen Teeth, and Project: Vengeance - formerly known as The Big Six - featuring the talents of Will Ramos (Lorna Shore), Dickie Allen (Infant Annihilator), Taylor Barber (Left To Suffer), Tyler Shelton (Traitors) and Darius Tehrani (Spite).
As ever, we want you to tell us which new songs are exciting you most, so don't forget to cast your vote below!
Devildriver - Through The Depths
Picking up where 2020's Dealing With Demons I left off, Dez Fafara and friends are back with the second part of the story and a whole new collection of conversations on life, loss and belonging. The first piece they've shared is Through The Depths, a driving metal masterstroke focusing on higher powers, the birth of ideas, and not blaming the Gods for your own mistakes. It's as thoughtful as it is thrilling and a firm reminder of the amount of power and positivity Devildriver still have in the tank after all these years.
Therapy? - Joy
Across their 33-year career, Therapy? have dabbled in everything from rave rock and noise punk to pounding alt-metal, always delivering a baseline sense of idiosyncratic brilliance that has made them a beloved cult sensation. New single Joy heralds the arrival of the band's first new album in five years, its chunky riffing and wryly dark lyrics perfectly showcasing the warped pop sensibilities the band have been delivering for over three decades.
Employed To Serve - Take Back Control
Fresh from opening for Gojira on their arena-conquering run across Europe and the UK, Employed To Serve have unveiled an all-new song as part of the deluxe edition of 2021's Conquering. In keeping with the band's brand of pummelling metallic hardcore, Take Back Control is all percussive force and charging riffs, vocalist Justine Jones even chucking out her own variation of the iconic metalcore 'blegh'.
Fit For An Autopsy - Hellions
Joining forces with Thy Art Is Murder and Malevolence, Fit For An Autopsy are the first to share a piece of The Aggression Sessions, set to feature an original and a cover from each band. And as a place to start, it doesn't come bigger and better than Hellions. A blackened piece of unrelenting metal fury, brimming with triumphant licks and guttural howls, it is modern metal as it should be played. And the closing breakdown is a guaranteed face-melter. With more of the trio's creations to be shared between now and April 07, based on this curtain-raiser, you're in for an absolute treat.
Swollen Teeth - Car Crash
After a brutalising debut self-titled track announced their arrival to the world in January, Swollen Teeth are spreading their wings with the similarly vicious Car Crash. There's a sense of lumbering heft to the new track b which adds an almost metallic hardcore bent to the band's sound, drawing a unique through-line from Slipknot to Code Orange via Glassjaw, the background presence of Ross Robinson and Sid Wilson felt in subtle shades of their own work coming through in the odd note or propulsive breakdown.
Drain - FTS (KYS)
The beating heart of the current East Bay hardcore movement, Drain's latest taster from their upcoming second full-length Living Proof, just cements that statement even more. A blend of sun-stained riffs, unrelenting vicious and smile-inducing heaviness, FTS (KYS) is the sort of blink-and-miss-it rowdiness you can't help but lose all inhibitions to. But it's about so much more than the grooves, with the track's video taking plenty of deadly turns and even showcasing a few chaotic bars from their friend Shakewell. It's all about keeping it in the family, after all.
Black Coast - Chains
Ever since the release of their stirring full-length Outworld back in 2021, Black Coast have been on an absolute roll, developing their haunting and hard-hitting take on nu metal's best assets more and more. Chains serves as another notch in their banger-stitched belt. Channelling the floatiness of Deftones, the melody-mangling of Incubus and the aggression of Limp Bizkit, all tied together nicely by a thoroughly modern tone, they have all the makings of being your new favourite band. Dive in and get that pit swelling.
Project: Vengeance - CUT. BLEED. REPEAT
First teased at the end of 2022 as The Big Six, Project: Vengeance is the final realised form of a deathcore vocalist collective unlike any other. Made up of Lorna Shore's Will Ramos, Infant Annihilator's Dickie Allen, Left To Suffer's Taylor Barber, Traitors' Tyler Shelton and Spite's Darius Tehrani, it is a smorgasbord of otherworldy and audacious vocal talent.
CUT. BLEED. REPEAT. is the first recorded output from the quintet and is more than worth the wait, materialising as a desolating, dark and lyrically despondent piece of extremity. Showing off the most disgusting noises their throats can conjure whilst also pushing each other as far as they can go, this finally feels like the start of something big.
Hangman's Chair - Spleenwise
After the hauntingly beautiful A Loner in 2022, Hangman's Chair have released new song Spleenwise ahead of their European tour with Igorrr. Continuing the grand tradition of gothically inclined doom bands begun by the likes of Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride and Type O Negative, Spleenwise sees the band's glacial pace applied to a song with strong 80s overtones, shades of Tears For Fears and Sisters Of Mercy shining through in a stunning six-minute package.
Mystic Prophecy - Hellriot
If lines like 'Screaming For Vengeance... Number Of The Beast' weren't hint enough, Mystic Prophecy love heavy metal. Thankfully, they've dedicated the last 23 years to spreading that love, new single Hellriot charging with all the momentum of a runaway freight train and built on a simple premise of being more metal than just about everyone else, their new single doing an admirable job of it too.
