Anyone else roasting alive? Summer is well and truly with us now and while the festivals are in full swing, that brings with it plenty of announcements for new tours, new albums and - perhaps most importantly for this feature - new songs!
But, we're getting ahead of ourselves. First, the results of last week's vote! It was a bumper week for our songs round-up last week with 20 entries, so naturally we have twice as many winners. Tarja Turunen's epic cover of Linkin Park's Numb took top spot in a tight race against Indonesian newcomers Voice Of Baceprot, while France's Molybaron and newcomer Maren took respective silver, leaving The Raven Age and Dolly Parton (ft. Rob Halford) to pick up a very respectible bronze, all getting added to our sprawling "songs of the year" playlist.
Still, it's back to business as usual this week as we bring you 10 of the finest new songs around courtesy of Sevendust, Cannibal Corpse, Doro, Blackbriar and more, with a spread of styles and subgenres that reflect just how diverse the metal world is in 2023. As ever, we need you to tell us which song excites you most, so don't forget to cast your vote below. Happy listening!
Sevendust - Holy Water
With a little under a month to go until Sevendust’s new album Truth Killer arrives, Holy Water is yet more proof that the band’s 14th studio album is re-embracing the nu metal elements of their early sound. That said, Sevendust aren’t sticking on the rose-tinted specs and ignoring their growth over the past 26 years, Holy Water feeling fresh and contemporary whilst maintaining Lajon Witherspoon’s all-conquering ear for hooks and melodies that has made the band so formidable.
Doro - Time For Justice
Next year will mark 40 years since Doro Pesch made her triumphant debut onto the metal scene, new single Time For Justice exploding with the same undeniable star quality that made Doro a heavy metal icon. The first single from new album Conqueress - Forever Strong And Proud - due on October 27 - Time For Justice boasts triumphant, fist-pumping bombast with a sense of enormity that will surely please anyone missing the sheer unstoppability of 80s heavy metal.
Baroness - Last Word
Thundering back with a clatter of drums and riffs, Baroness continue to prove themselves one of metal’s most instrumentally satisfying groups with new single Last Word. The first single from their new album Stone - due September 15 - Last Word rides atop frenetic guitar-work and an irrepressibly frenetic drum beat from Sebastian Thomson, vocalist John Baizley drifting above the earthly din with massive vocal melodies that tap into the same sweet spot as Shock Me or Tourniquet. Fair to say, this one has us excited.
Cannibal Corpse - Blood Blind
As expectedly brutal as a hammer to the face, Cannibal Corpse are surely one of death metal’s most reliable bands by this point, the announcement of their sixteenth studio album Chaos Horrific for a September 22 release welcome news for all fans of unrelenting extremity. New single Blood Blind rampages like a runaway freight train, its wailing guitar solos and George ‘Corpsegrinder’ Fisher’s vicious bark lending an air of menace that few bands can match.
Electric Callboy - Everytime We Touch (TEKKNO version)
As the utterly enormous audience they pulled at Download Festival can attest, Electric Callboy know exactly how to party, their metalcore-meets-euro-dance simultaneously brilliantly fun and undeniably cheesy as fuck. Granted, covering Cascada’s Everytime We Touch tips the scale slightly more to the latter, but the breakout metal moments just make this feel like a delightful metal mash-up that’ll as surely fill dancefloors as it will piss off the elitists.
Holding Absence - Honey Moon
If beguiling, massive melodies are your thing then Holding Absence have you covered with their latest single, Honey Moon. The pop sensibilities at the heart of Honey Moon have been embraced elsewhere by the likes of Architects or Bring Me The Horizon, but there’s no denying that Holding Absence subsume the sound of radio-friendly rock into their sound in a unique, powerful way that communicates their crowd-conquering ambitions.
Urne - The Burden
If you were worried after the more extreme metal stylings of Becoming The Ocean that Urne were turning their back on the massive riffs and trad-metal infused elements of their first record, The Burden brings it all crashing back in to delightful effect. Going from Gojira-like thunder to a Metallica-style imperious stomp, The Burden is an affirmation that Urne remain one of metal’s most exciting new groups, Joe Nally showing off a venomous blackened vocal at times that betrays his underground roots with the likes of Hang The Bastard.
Blackbriar - Cicada
Blackbriar’s have fast established themselves as an exciting new voice in symphonic metal, tapping into a gothic fairytale elements that makes them utterly enchanting to behold. New album A Dark Euphony is due September 29, and with Cicada maintaining the high quality of previous singles Crimson Faces and My Soul’s Demise, it looks fair to say we might have new symphonic stars on our hands.
Oxymorrons - Graveyard Words
Oxymorrons defy traditional genre classifications by sheer dint of doing whatever they want from song to song, which perhaps makes them perfect for supporting the similarly genre-disregarding Corey Taylor on his upcoming US tour. Case in point, Oxymorrons’ new single Graveyard Words shifts the dial decidedly away from their usual punk base to tap into pop-punk by way of Twenty One Pilots, all massive hooks. Whether the rest of their upcoming album Melanin Punk - out October 20 - will follow this route remains to be seen, but chances are Oxymorrons have plenty more surprises left in store.
Filth Is Eternal - Crawl Space
Scabrous and irrepressible, FIlth Is Eternal’s new single Crawl Space is an unrelenting blast of hardcore punk with jagged hooks and surprisingly dexterous guitar solos. Taken from the band’s upcoming album Find Out - due September 29 - the track hits the same kind of thrilling beats that The Distillers and Rancid were almost 20 years ago, going hell for leather in a little over 90 seconds.
