Looking for something new – and good – to sink your teeth into? You've come to the right place. We've combed through a tonne of Tracks Of The Week candidates and narrowed them down to the eight scorching tunes you see below. Check them out and vote for your favourite using the poll at the foot of the page.
But first, a look at last week’s leaderboard. Collateral romped into first place, with Wildchild following up in second and The Rocket Dolls in third. Well played to all, and here’s our winners’ victorious tune...
Crown Lands - Spit It Out
On their new single, this hotly tipped Canadian duo sound like Wolfmother getting freaky with Jack White – noisy, woozy blues rock with guitars that slash like sabres, topped with vocal shrieks straight from the trippiest corner of hell. It’s how you imagine the old blues masters would’ve wanted their legacy to live on.
Nightwish - Noise
The Finnish symphonic overlords are back with the first taste of their new album, and they’re taking aim at 21st century culture – selfies, scrolling, screen-staring, mobile phones, basically, plus pills and a whole load of other modern age trappings, all of which are garishly, ghoulishly acted out in a lavish, theatrical video. As the saying goes, if a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing with fabulous costumes and Tuomas Holopainen (wearing only a gas mask) in a bath covered in black oil.
Wishbone Ash - Back In The Day
Driving track from WA’s first new album in six years, Coat Of Arms (out this month), described by Andy Powell as a song about “living the life - the rock life, featuring guitars aplenty!” Such a description arguably makes it sound a little more ‘basic’ than it actually is, though the ‘guitars aplenty’ bit is spot on; there are a lot of guitars here, in lush, pensive layers (electric, acoustic, rhythm-building, soloing, softer, rockier...).
Novatines - The Fear
Moody new one from the young, Bath-based alt rockers – part British classic rock, several parts gnarly 90s grunge (there’s a tasty flash of Just by Radiohead in the guitars), it escalates in anger and intensity before dropping and leaving with a final, emphatic chop.
Sturgill Simpson - A Good Look
Anyone familiar with Sturgill from his beautifully cerebral country records might be surprised to see him soundtracking an edgy Anime series. But he’s done it rather brilliantly, marrying his rootsy, soul-burrowing voice with a bouncy tempo, hooky guitars, blazing synths and dancey beats. The good kind of surprise.
Gilby Clarke - Rock’n’Roll Is Getting Louder
Dirty, unrefined and unsophisticated in all the right ways, this new one from the one-time Guns N’ Roses guitarist kicks off with raw, rumbling bass and the kind of guitars the Stones might have played if they’d grown up on 80s metal instead of the blues. Music with which to put away a bottle of whiskey, then go out and break laws and speed limits. Yeah.
Joe Satriani - Nineteen Eighty
Few guitarists commit as wholeheartedly to two extremes as Joe Satriani. On the one end, on Satch’s new single here, you’ve got brain-spinning levels of six-string dexterity, seemingly from a galaxy far, far away. On the other end, however, you’ve got a deliciously head-bobbing, basic-as-all-hell blues hook. Somehow the two become friends. Find more outer-space boogies like this on his next album, Shapeshifting.
Skunk Anansie - This Means War
Start a riot, a revolution, or just get any festering rage out in the open with Skin and co’s thumping, no-bullshit new single. ‘This means war, fuckers!’ the singer cries in the chorus, in a ferocious manner that's literally impossible to question.
