Our most recent Tracks Of The Week contest was one of our most titanic, with Scottish rockers Mason Hill edging out guitar wizz Orianthi by a single percentage point as the two split more than 80% of the overall vote. It was a bit like the epic WWI Battle of Verdun, but with guitars and better hair. And fewer deaths, obviously.
Congratulations to both combatants.
Congratulations also to Tuk Smith & The Restless Hearts, whose excellent new single Love Don't Live Here Anymore was really the only other song with a respectable score.
Below, you'll find eight more candidates ready to enter the rock'n'roll trenches to brave this week's battle. Please don't forget to vote for your favourite.
Summer of Hate - El Saif feat. Thomas Attar
A heady, hypnotic swirl of gothic psychedelia, Middle Eastern flavours and post-punk adrenalin, the new single from these Portuguese rockers is the sort of elegantly weird, shadowy noise that should have featured in an episode of The Mighty Boosh. Fans of Uncle Acid And The Deadbeats and Jesus And Mary Chain will find a lot to get their teeth into here, but there’s a breathy mystique from Laura Calado’s vocals that covers the whole thing in a layer of tasty dream-pop. Nice.
Michael Monroe - Rockin’ Horse
Finland’s very own rock’n’roll Tasmanian Devil is clearly having the best time on this high-octane, no-bullshit first taste of his new album Outerstellar. “Rockin’ Horse is a cool, rockin’ song that we made a great fun video for with the fantastic director Leigh Brooks,” says Michael. “We got into different characters on the so-called Waking Up With Michael Monroe TV morning show with me as the host. And it’s the first time ever you can see me without make-up (!). Great fun and good times. Hope you enjoy it!”
Preyrs - Into The Blue
Fronted by Belfast maverick Amy Montgomery (if Alanis Morissette, Trent Reznor and Janis Joplin co-parented a child, it would have been her) Preyrs make a big, ambitious racket on Into The Blue – its expansive, heavy alt rock base shot through with jagged textures and strings for a bracingly unhinged, commanding effect. Like what you hear? Find more on their album, The Wounded Healer, which comes out next month.
Joe Elliott and Phil Collen (ft. Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke) - Seagull
The new tribute album Can’t Get Enough: A Tribute to Bad Company is out now, and while the likes of Halestorm, The Struts, Myles Kennedy, Blackberry Smoke, Dirty Honey and the rest have all done their various things, the Def Leppard pairing of Joe Elliott and Phil Collen have trumped them all by getting actual Paul Rodgers and actual Simon Kirke to contribute to a stirring version of Bad Company's epic debut album closer Seagull. Kirke's drums might not arrive until almost three minutes have passed, but still, it's a historic match-up.
Mammoth - Same Old Song
We're beginning to think that rock'n'roll saviour Wolfgang Van Halen can literally do no wrong, a point of view reinforced by Same Old Song, a song in which he literally does nothing wrong. It rattles along like Queens Of The Stone Age playing Alter Bridge, with a riff that thunders like thunder and a guitar solo that wibbles and wobbles and threatens to take no prisoners before, indeed, taking no prisoners. The album is out now.
Unpolished* - Collateral Damage
Like our other recent faves Die Spitz, LA-based quartet Unpolished* mix up the genres with little regard for the kind of reductive pigeon-holing us lazy journalists use when describing bands to people who might not know them. There's punk and grunge and hard rock and pop punk and alt.rock and probably some other stuff too, and it all smooshes together in a whirling maelstrom of guitar excellence and angry good times. Bonus points for the fancy corpse paint.
* we have no idea why there's an asterisk in their name.
![unpolished* - collateral damage [official music video] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/UbxakSuy7R8/maxresdefault.jpg)
Pieces Of Molly - Can't Muzzle Me
New Zealand's Pieces Of Molly describe themselves as the bastard child of a one-night stand between Motörhead and AC/DC, so if you've read this far, you'll know what to expect. Luckily, the band's sound lives up to the unholy nature of the coupling, for Can't Muzzle Me races along like a runaway hellbound train, belching fire and leaking diesel and spitting out acrid smoke. And then it's enlivened by some unexpected "naaa-naaa-naaah" vocals near the end, like Airbourne covering Hey Jude or something. Catch 'em in Timaru on November 14.
ZZ Ward - Dust My Broom
Mere months on from sharing a stage with Slash on his S.E.R.P.E.N.T tour, American blueser ZZ Ward has released a lively version of the Robert Johnson/Elmore James classic Dust My Broom. It's taken from the deluxe edition update to this year's Liberation album, which found Ward returning to her blues roots after a successful dalliance with blue-eyed soul. "My hope is that longtime fans feel an even deeper connection to the music," says Ward, "while new listeners get a sense of the honesty, energy, and soul that I try to put into everything I create."
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