You know the drill. Here are my top 5 metal tracks from the past week.
1. Bullet For My Valentine – Shatter
This is the third track from BFMV’s forthcoming self-titled album, after Knives and Parasite. In keeping with the tone of the record thus far – “Bullet 2.0” as Matt Tuck describes – Shatter sees the Bridgend quartet continue on their newfound path of sonic destruction, employing tectonic breakdowns to cataclysmic effect.
2. Ice Nine Kills – Rainy Day
Ice Nine Kills are one of those bands that you know will deliver every time. On their latest track, Rainy Day, the Massachusetts five-piece dial up the horror movie nods even further – if that’s even possible – alongside a beautifully mixed chorus of drop-tuned guitars and earworm vocal melodies.
3. Our Hollow, Our Home
Because who can get enough of that brutal-yet-infectiously-melodic metalcore goodness? Southampton’s Our Hollow, Our Home this week dropped the video for Monarch, from their latest album Burn in the Flood. I won’t go on – the track speaks comfortably for itself.
4. Ghost – Enter Sandman
Six artists paid tribute to Enter Sandman on the newly released Metallica Blacklist: Weezer, Rina Sawayama, Juanes, Mac DeMarco, Alessia Cara and The Warning and Ghost. So the Tobias Forge-led band of ghouls had their work cut out making their cover stand out. But make it stand out they did. In typical Ghost fashion – creating music that’s far happier-sounding than their macabre stage outfits might lead you to believe – the band have taken what’s perhaps Metallica’s biggest song – a song about nightmares – and breathed in a dose of feel-good.
5. Majestica – Metal United
If you love a bit of power metal, this one will scratch that itch. Many of the genre’s cliches are embraced wholeheartedly in the video for Majestica’s latest single, Metal United – folky whistling during the intro, guitars swinging in unison, super-catchy melodies – and I love it. This track’s a nod to the festival stage crews who’ve had a tough time over the course of the pandemic.
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