Anyone else melting? Yeah, us too. But, there's no time to get intimate with iced treats and strap ourselves to an industrial sized fan when there's so much brand new music to sink our teeth into.
Last week saw a brutal race between heavy hitters including The Hu, Amon Amarth, Parkway Drive and Within Temptation, but it was the plucky Mongolians who conquered all with Black Thunder in our public vote for last week's Track Of The Week, just as Ghengis Khan did almost 800 years before.
This week is another assembly of top-tier metal heavyweights - Disturbed, Architects, Arch Enemy, Heilung... That's one hell of a roster. So never mind the Pantera 'reunion' - here are the best new songs you need to hear this week, for you to stick on good and loud and royally piss the neighbours off. What else would you do in this heat, anyway?
Don't forget to cast your vote for the best track at the bottom of the page, either.
Disturbed - Hey You
True to his promise that the new Disturbed would be “90 percent heavy” and closer to The Sickness or Ten Thousand Fists, David Draiman and the boys are back on blinding form with Hey You. From its chugging riff to Draiman’s percussive vocal, Hey You feels like a massive throwback to Disturbed’s crowning glories, complete with an absolutely massive chorus. No word on when this new album is due, but it’s off to a stellar start.
Architects - Tear Gas
Architects' evolution continues to see them become the kind of streamlined, turbo-polished, anthem-writing machine that festival headliners are made of. Tear Gas is a lovely slab of post-BMTH heaviness packing an earworm of a chorus tailor-made for massive venues. It's also packing the funniest music video of 2022 so far.
Beartooth - Riptide
Riptide finally answers the question many of us have wondered for years: what would Beartooth sound like with a truly happy Caleb Shomo in their ranks? The answer? Not too dissimilar to the Beartooth we already know - big, bouncy metalcore riffs and an even bigger chorus - but infused with an infectious sense of positive momentum that you'll find it impossible not to be caught up in. Long may it continue!
I Prevail - Bad Things
Few bands have risen through metalcore's ranks as emphatically as I Prevail in recent years. The Michigan's mob latest single, taken off imminent new album True Power, is a typically well-honed slice of shiny, hook-filled riffage with a nice, meaty breakdown to pin it all together.
Stick To Your Guns - Hush
It might be hotter than Satan’s left nutsack right now, but that doesn’t mean we can’t all enjoy some high-energy, ultra-aggro hardcore. Stick To Your Guns are on one with Hush - a musical slug to the chin with a killer refrain (‘you’ll answer for what you’ve done/with your last breath’) spat out by vocalist Jesse Barnett with so much venom you’d think he’d got cobra DNA. Truly, no chill in sight.
Dieth - In The Hall Of The Hanging Serpents
Getting the boot from Megadeth hasn't slowed David Ellefson's musical pursuits - in fact, if anything it seems he's taking a leaf from his old boss's book and coming back faster and heavier than ever. Dieth is the latest in a string of Ellefson's post-'deth pursuits, though goes decidedly further along the extreme path than just about anything his prior projects have, going for all-out death metal/thrash crossover territory.
Heilung - Asja
When you hear the words 'Nordic folk', your mind is likely cast to images of Vikings, raising expectations for lyrics about nature, battles, Gods and heroes. Heilung aren't a band given over to stereotypes however, and Asja is instead a love song, albeit one delivered with all the enormous cinematic atmosphere we've come to expect from the genre.
Kassogtha - Venom
Named for Cthulu’s sister (no, we didn’t know that was a thing either), newcomers Kassogtha are going big with Venom, the first single from their upcoming second album rEvolve. Creepy, croaking vocals give way to a full-on Gojira-style breakout and… well, what more could you want? E)E
Vended - Ded To Me
Be honest, if you heard Vended's Ded To Me without context, you'd still say "fucking hell, this sounds like Slipknot". Simon Crahan and Griffin Taylor certainly aren't afraid to embrace the sound that turned their dads into chart-topping worldbeaters, and damned if they don't do a mighty fine job of bringing back the exhilirating pulse of nu metal. With their debut at Bloodstock looming in just a few weeks, it looks like we might just be seeing the start of something very special for Vended.
Arch Enemy - In The Eye Of The Storm
At this point, calling Arch Enemy "anthemic" feels almost redundant, the band having made it their bread and butter to write some of the catchiest, most epic and inspiring melodeath songs in the business. Few bands can match them when it comes to taking extreme metal to the masses, and In The Eye Of The Storm is everything massive about Arch Enemy in a neat four-and-a-half minute package.
