Happy Monday rock peoples, and welcome to the latest edition of Classic Rock’s Tracks of the Week, in which eight of the best new tunes battle it out for your votes. Last week the following artistes landed your top three:
3. RHR - Rapture
2. Metal Church - Out Of Balance
1. Wille And The Bandits - Find My Way
Congratulations to Wille And The Bandits, our first prize winners! And bravo to Metal Church and RHR, who won a lot of votes in second and third places. Who will do it for you this week? We have no idea, but we do reckon you’ll find something here that you’ll like, so get stuck in and vote for your favourite at the foot of this page. But, first how about a listen to last week’s winners? Ooh go on then...
Emigrate - 1234 (feat Ben Kowalewicz)
When guitarist Richard Kruspe isn’t brandishing flamethrowers and thrashing out industrial grooves with Rammstein, he makes metallic hard rock with Emigrate – like this hooky, stompy highlight from upcoming album A Million Degrees. Billy Talent singer Ben Kowalewicz does a nicely swashbuckling job on lead vocals, and the main hook has a meaty lasciviousness that echoes Kruspe’s dayjob somewhat, in a very good way.
Alice In Chains - Never Fade
Based on this cut from latest album Rainier Fog, we’d say age becomes William DuVall and Jerry Cantrell extremely well - in both sound and appearance. And all of Alice In Chains, in fact, but the velvety gravel (and guitar chops) of the two singers is taking us back to ‘90s Seattle in a most delightful way. The video continues the story that began with (first single) The One You Know; fairly cryptic stuff, involving shadowy goings-on after dark, one guy getting a tooth pulled out… See what you make of it.
Echo Del Tusker - Fix Your Face
Thinking that voice sounds familiar? Chances are you may have heard Estelle Artois in her previous band: fellow Aussie rockers Tequila Mockingbyrd. After that particular collaboration didn’t work out she set her sights elsewhere, and can now be found making raw, bluesily minded rock’n’roll like this; rabble-rousing hand-claps and frills-free guitars included.
Atari Ferrari - Alice
A cosy but-just-edgy-enough dose of nostalgic pop rock now, with hints of glam and bittersweetness, from our friends in Spokane, Washington. Alice sounds rather like the kind of thing T.Rex and Tom Petty might have come up with, if they’d decided to make an album together. Imagine if that did happen...yeah, that would have been cool...
Broken Witt Rebels - Shake Me Down (live)
With tunes like this (and especially with a lead voice like that) up their sleeve, Broken Witt Rebels are pretty much Birmingham’s answer to Kings Of Leon. Depending on your taste for chart-friendly rock (and how much early vs recent Kings of Leon you’ve listened to) this may have you thinking ‘ooh cool...’ or ‘oh fuck off’. Either way, we implore you to give this dulcet display of Southern style a spin.
Rival Sons - Back In The Woods
Rival Sons had a song called Thundering Voices on previous album Hollow Bones. On this second advance taste of upcoming record, Feral Roots, everything thunders - that opening cacophony of drums, bass, pounding guitars, even Jay’s vocals (which seem slightly disjointed at first, if we’re honest, but the whole thing evens out), it’s all there and screaming with crazed blues rock gusto. There are more concise tunes elsewhere in their arsenal, but for a rich wall of rock’n’roll noise look no further...
Bang Bang Romeo - Bag Of Bones
Mixing contemporary pop production with suave rock undertones, this Sheffield group deliver a heavy emotional punch in the coolest Rn’B-shaped way. Singer Stars (real name Anastasia Walker) steals the show with a huge voice that’s part Amy Winehouse, part old-school soul queen. They’re supporting Pink on tour next year, but there’s enough in there to suggest they may appeal to a rockier audience.
King Creature - World Of Sin
We’ll leave you now with the ‘acoustic’ new single from part-grunge, part-old school heavy metal dudes King Creature. Here the spirits of Alice In Chains, Soundgarden and Black Label Society merge into a fistful of gnarly, pensive rock action. And something about a spaniel at the very end, but we’re not totally sure where that came from...
