Summer's almost here! There's only a couple of weeks to go until the summer festival calendar properly kicks off (hello Welcome To Rockville, Sonic Temple and Desertfest on both sides of the pond!) and new music is still coming thick and fast.
So first, the results of last week's vote! Voivod's frankly insane symphonic space-odyssey Threshold Of Hell took third place, with Electric Callboy buzzing their way to second. But the overall winners for the week for Spanish melodeath veterans Bloodhunter, teaming up with Moonspell's Fernando Ribeiro to steal the crown.
This week we've got a good selection of styles and sounds, from Indian hardcore thugs R.A.I.D. to the elegaic tones of A.A. Williams, a Black Veil Brides/Robb Flynn collab and all-out extremity from Dimmu Borgir, At The Gates and Intoxicated. As ever, we need you to tell us which songs excite you most, so don't forget to cast your vote in the poll below.
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Korn - Reward The Scars
A new Korn album feels overdue. In recent years the nu metal godfathers have headlined both Wacken in Germany and Download Festival in the UK, proving once and for all they're a top tier metal act. Reward The Scars is no major twist on the classic Korn formula; a bouncing main riff, skittering basslines and a "scream it out while you dance" chorus courtesy of Jonathan Davis. Written as a tie-in for Diablo 4: Lord Of Hatred, it's a tantalising glimpse at a more back-to-basics approach similar to 2022's Requiem.
At The Gates - In Dark Distortion
A fitting viking burial for quite possibly the most influential melodic death metal band of them all, The Ghost Of A Future Dead is the final At The Gates record to feature vocals from Tomas Lindberg and feels like a fitting blaze of glory to go out on. In Dark Distortion adds an almost gothic twist to the Gothenburg sound, an almost New York punk/Unto Others pace creeping in to prove the masters never sat complacent. Their new album is out today and should be top of any metalheads listening list.
Black Veil Brides - Revenger (ft. Robb Flynn)
There'll be some people who never get past Black Veil Brides look in the early 2010s. Although they dropped the metalcore elements of their sound early on, with new album Vindictive they're clearly coming back to the heavy side in a big way and new single Revenger sees them team-up with Machine Head's Robb Flynn for a riffy, old-school metal track plain and simple. With the band playing both Sonic Temple and Download Festival in the coming weeks, it'll be interesting to see how crowds respond to this harder-edged material.
Intoxicated - Carved In Stone
Sticking to the realms of old school, Intoxicated's Carved In Stone is a ferocious avalance of hard riffs and gravel-toned snarls. The Floridian band dropped new album The Dome back on March 27, and this single nicely tickles the itch for anyone who loves a bit of high-speed death metal inflected thrash.
Tarja - I Don't Care (ft. Dani Filth)
Both Tarja and Dani Filth pioneered specific subsets of metal at the turn of the millennium, so in many ways it's surprising the pair haven't joined forces before. That oversight is being put right with I Don't Care. Taken from Tarja's upcoming record Frisson Noir - due June 12 - the track combines symphonic grandeur with Filth's typically baroque, rasping delivery to create a real beauty/beast dynamic. The sudden electro beat that pops up later in the track is a real surprise, mind.
Dimmu Borgir - Ascent
Sticking to pillars of modern black metal, Dimmu Borgir have unveiled the wonderfully infernal Ascent from their upcoming record Grand Serpent Rising, due May 22. The band's renowned symphonic elements are almost entirely absent on the track, the odd flourish aside. Instead, Dimmu focus on visceral, gut rumbling intensity to get the job done. It's a reminder that while they've become a by-word for symphonic black metal, they don't need those elements to feel massive.
Unpeople - Clouds
Bear with it. Unpeople's Clouds might take a second or 18 to kick in, but when it does its big riffs all the way. The British band feel like they might really blow up in the near future, having played festivals and even supported Metallica before they've even put out a debut album. This latest single captures their genre-blurring sound; there's some proper alt. metal riffs, radio-friendly choruses and a sense of bounding, joyful abandon that brings to mind the antics of 90s Britrock. If you're in the UK, keep an eye out for them at Slam Dunk and Download Festival in the coming weeks.
Quicksand - Get To It
A massively influential force on post-hardcore, new material from Quicksand is always cause for celebration. Picking up from 2021's Distant Populations, new single Get To It has metronome riffs and explosive breakouts that bring to mind fellow alt. innovators like Helmet. It's no major reinvention of the wheel, but when you shaped it in the first place, it hardly has to be - and new album Bring On The Psychics will be out July 17.
A.A. Williams - Poison
Dark and ever-shifting, A.A. Williams continues to evolve as she prepares for her third album, Solstice, set for a June 5 release. Latest single Poison is neither the post-metal of her debut nor the more gothic overtures of 2022's As The Moon Rests, instead feeling like a more straightforward alt rock tune with echoes of groups like Radiohead or early Placebo with its cold, dark tones.
R.A.I.D. - Retribution
Hailing from India, R.A.I.D. deliver primo metallic hardcore beatdowns. Thuggish, brutal and no nonsense, Retribution has guitars that wail like warning sirens and a sense of claustrophobic intensity that feels like being suffocated under a wall of flesh. The band's new album of the same name is out today and well worth a listen.
Windwaker - click (ft. RinRin)
Scuttling like an electrified bug, Windwaker's newest single Click is all about frantic intensity and weirdness. Drafting in Filipino genre-blurrer RinRin, the song has elements of metalcore, nu metal and even a few pop elements whilst still feeling resolutely alternative. With Sonic Temple festival just a couple of weeks away, 2026 could be a big year for Windwaker.
Your Spirit Dies - Starless
It's not hard to despair at the direction some subsets of metalcore are going in the post-Bad Omens and Sleep Token world, shamelessly introducing pop elements with no sense of nuance or engagement with the sounds they're making. Not so Your Spirit Dies. The South Carolina bruisers hit like a truck on new single Starless, announcing new EP It Is Well... for a May 22 release date by basically bludgeoning you half to death with beatdowns and unrelenting aggression.
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