The man carrying our latest Tracks Of The Week has landed, taxied to a halt, and kissed the tarmac. And now he’s hoping that this week’s collection isn’t so explosive that the package gets held up going through customs. We hope you enjoy them before they detonate.
Ghost - From The Pinnacle To The Pit
If we had a dollar for every person we’ve met who assumes that Ghost are some kind of corpsepaint-wearing, church-burning troupe of black metal thugs, we’d probably have almost enough money to pre-order the band new album, Meliora, which is actually much more melodic than the people who haven’t heard them probably think. So go on, give them a go.
Band-Maid® -_ Real Existence_** ** You may have been gazing in confusion at Babymetal, thinking that it looks interesting but the music’s a bit demented. So give Band-Maid® a try. They dress up as maids (which is a bit weird, we know), but they play their own instruments, and they definitely rock, with riffs that thunder like galloping stallions racing against the cruel winds of doom.
David Gilmour - Rattle That Lock The Pink Floyd man releases the title track of his new album, Rattle That Lock, and rather lovely it is too. Exquisitely recorded, of course, it’s the kind of song that makes you wish you had a more expensive hi-fi, one that allowed you to gently wallow in the production, drifting away on a mattress of sonic clouds.
Blackmore’s Night - The Other Side Pagan poetry from Blackmore’s Night, as Ritchie and Candice’s band release the first fruits from the forthcoming All Our Yesterdays LP. Joining the Blackmores on their adventures are Bard David of Larchmont, Earl Grey of Chimay, Lady Lynn and Troubadour of Aberdeen, which are the best names for musicians we’ve come across in ages. Lovely rauschpfeife work, too.
Broken Hands - Meteor Fresh from the priming hands of Royal Blood producer Tom Dalgety, Broken Hands spilled forth onto Youtube with this cool, heady piece of swaggering crunch. Blending hints of Primal Scream with the alluring dirt of BRMC, it’s an oddly suave piece of modern rock’n’roll.
The Fierce & The Dead - Magnet In Your Face Our fave Northampton-born-London-based pronk instrumentalists are back with their first new music in two years. Taken from a six-track EP of the same name - due out August 14 - Magnet is a signature slab of grungy pronk mayhem from a raft of new tunes that the band describe as bigger, riffier, more electronic and “fucking terrifying”. Order it now. Order it hard.
Pop Evil - In Disarray There’s a bit near the beginning that sounds a bit like the intro to Iron Man (the Sabbath song, not the tormented billionaire playboy superhero), before everything launches into a thudding riff that places the song firmly in Stone Temple Pilots/Alice In Chains territory. File under “Ooh, this is actually pretty good. I might get the album when it comes out in August.”
Pentagram - Walk Alone The U.S. doom/metal dudes were reunited with metal label Peaceville for their forthcoming new album, Curious Volume – due out August 28. This one’s a lovely woozy sausage of heavy metal heave-ho.
