Happy Friday! Have some new music courtesy of the best, the loudest and the most interesting new metal songs we stumbled across over the past seven days. Before we get stuck into all that, though, let's look back a week at the results of last week's poll, which saw UK alt metal underdogs El Moono voted as your favourite song of the bunch, beating out some tough competition from the likes of Scene Queen, Dark Tranquillity, Fleshgod Apocalypse and more.
This week, we've got everything from an awesome reunion between two Nightwish icons, the latest cut from the Slipknot spawn that got the metal world talking, a gorgeous single perfect for plugging in as you ride sandworms about and much more. Go listen, come back to the poll near the top of this page and vote for your favourite. We'll see you in seven days.
Marko Hieltala & Tarja Turunen - Left On Mars
Almost 20 years on from Tarja Turunen's Nightwish swansong Once, the singer has reunited with former bandmate Marko Hieltala for epic love song Left On Mars. The pair might have been key players in Nightwish's operatic, symphonic sound but Left On Mars is a beast of a different stripe, keeping some of the symphonic grandeur but offering something more akin to classic rock, albeit with a slightly proggy twist. With Hieltala admitting he's not averse to forming a new band with Turunen, this could be a tantalising first glimpse at a new project entirely.
Vended - The Far Side
With a little over a month until Vended return to Europe and the UK for a headline tour, the Iowan band have unveiled a slobber-spraying nasty in brutish new track The Far Side. The shadow of the heaviest ends of nu metal still lend definition to the band's sound, but with The Far Side Vended find space for Chimaira-like New Wave Of American Heavy Metal groove and aggression, capturing some of the fill-the-dancefloor-and-then-smash-the-fucker zeal of 00s metal.
Gatecreeper - The Black Curtain
If you were at Bloodstock last year, you shouldn’t need telling that Gatecreeper are on an absolute tear right now, the Arizona death metal quintet putting on one of the most electrifying performances of the weekend. Little surprise then that new single The Black Curtain - taken from new album Dark Superstition, due May 17 - is an absolute monster. Previous single Caught In The Treads showed off the band’s ear for colossal grooves, but The Black Curtain shows off a more anthemic side of the band that beckons them to bigger stages, the song’s insidious melodies digging into the horror-friendly vibes of 80s death metal.
The Plot In You - Don't Look Away
The Plot In You have by no means shied away from heaviness in the 13 years since their debut album, but the band have seldom gone as shit-kickingly brutal as they do on new single Don’t Look Away. Hitting like a bulldozer and centred around a thundering core riff, Don’t Look Away is a taste of the band’s upcoming Vol. 2 EP, due May 3, hard edges and raw intensity threaded with stuttering beats and high-toned melodies that feel more in keeping with the likes of Code Orange or Heriot than their usual fare. Expect this one to do some damage when the band come over to the UK in September.
DVNE - Plerõma
Given the blockbuster success of the movies right now, it feels fitting that the Scottish band also taking inspiration from Frank Herbert's Dune novels would be crafting cinematic masterpieces of their own. Plerõma heralds the arrival of DVNE's upcoming third album, Voidkind, on April 19. Gorgeously layered, Plerõma affords the band plenty of space to spread their wings and build outwards, the song's tight riffing giving way to expansive vocal melodies and a crescendo that feels like being set adrift in the cosmos. Glorious.
Fire From The Gods - Soul Revolution (ft. Yung Mo$h)
The first release of a beefed-up, deluxe edition of Fire From The Gods' 2022 full-length Soul Revolution, the album's title-track has been reworked to feature a new, guest appearance from rising US artist Yung Mo$h. It's one of four newly tweaked songs to appear on the deluxe edition, alongside a cover of Rage Against The Machine classic, Guerilla Radio.
Greywave - Undone
Interweaving elements of dream pop and shoegaze, Greywave's latest single Undone also taps into a darker underbelly at the heart of alternative music that casts even the most beautiful melody in a sinister light. New single Undone shows this dichotomy off perfectly, shimmering instrumentals cast through an unrelenting darkness that isn't a million miles from the likes of Chelsea Wolfe.
Sunnata - Chimera
The slow-burn realms of doom are fertile plains for transcendental, hypnotic melodies and Poland's Sunnata are taking full advantage on new single Chimera. Five minutes of mesmeric intonations give way to a driving riff that feels like it burns through the ozone, at one point even bursting into honest-to-god blastbeats without breaking their unique spell. If the rest of new album Chasing Shadows - due May 10 - is half as trippy, we can't wait to explore new dimensions with this unique beast, to say nothing of the band's upcoming appearances at Desertfest and ArcTanGent in the UK that should provide plenty of opportunities for aural cosmonautic exploration.
Imminence - The Black
Lurching from delicate piano-tickling to lumbering metal riffs to haunting bursts of strings and choir-singing, with The Black, Swedish metalcore crew Imminence are flexing on their deserved reputation as oner of the most exciting young names in the game right now. Following in the sonic footsteps of luminaries like Architects, expect the quintet to get people talking when their album of the same name arrives next month.
Elvellon - A Vagabond's Heart
Tarja and Marko reuniting not enough symphonic metal bombast for you for one week? Allow us to introduce you to Elvellon, the German five-piece whose thoroughly decent debut album Until Dawn marked them out as ones to watch upon its release in 2018. It's taken a while for us to get a follow-up, but on the basis on A Vagabond's Heart, the band have honed their songwriting chops nicely, boding well for new album Ascending In Synergy when it arrives in May.
