Happy New Year! We're barely a week into 2024 and already new singles are coming thick and fast, while new records from the likes of Judas Priest, While She Sleeps and Chelsea Wolfe lie just over the horizon.
Much as we did last year, we'll be helping you navigate these choppy waters, digging deep to find some of the biggest, best and most unique new songs from across the metal and alternative spectrum. And, as ever, we need your help to crown the best of the bunch, so each week we'll resume our voting process to decide which singles are exciting you most.
It might be early days for 2024, but already we've got new singles from the likes of Bring Me The Horizon, Bob Vylan and Lucifer to get the year started with a bang. What's more, you'll also find offerings of extremity from Kaaboos, thundering hardcore/metalcore from Desolated and Where Oceans Burn, as well as shimmering goth metal from October Noir. Don't forget to cast your vote below - and here's to another brilliant year of new music!
Bring Me The Horizon - Kool-Aid
After a massive 2023, Bring Me The Horizon are hitting the ground running in 2024 with new single Kool-Aid. Vicious and propulsive, Kool-Aid is in-keeping with the trend-setting metalcore stylings the band brought forth on Sempiternal, albeit with little flourishes - buzzing electronica here, hand claps there - that betray the band’s stylistic evolution over the ensuing decade. With their arena tour set to kick off in a few days, it’s fair to say BMTH aren’t scaling their ambitions back for the year ahead.
Bob Vylan - Hunger Games
With barely suppressed irritability and venom, Bob Vylan’s new single Hunger Games takes swipes at the cost of living crisis. Bob’s grime-inspired flow is on full display throughout the single as riffs buzz and crash, only to give way to trance-like electronica and insistent percussion towards the end of track that suggest a whole new sonic realm for the pair to explore.
Lucifer - Maculate Heart
With just a few weeks to go before Lucifer V’s release on January 26, Lucifer are swinging back with the insidiously groovy Maculate Heart. Possessed of the infectious, wild sensibilities of late 60s and early 70s occult rock, Maculate Heart buzzes with an unstoppable energy that has us itching for sweaty, subterranean clubs.
Desolated - Victim (ft. D Bloc)
Bulldog barks and meaty riffs you could roast on a spit, UK hardcore mob Desolated are bringing the beatdown with new single Victim, their first taste of new music since 2019’s A New Realm Of Misery EP. Given the massive increase in popularity hardcore has enjoyed in recent years, it’s hard to see how Desolated’s brand of brutal yet catchy hardcore won’t result in plenty of bulldog-bark sing-alongs and vicious pits as the year goes on.
October Noir - A Halo Hung From Horns
Taking cues from classic horrors, the video for October Noir’s latest single A Halo Hung From Horns offers a loving take on the cheesy side of darkness. From its bright, Tubular Bells-like keys to the bounding riffs and brooding baritone of Tom Noir, the track is exemplar of the band’s ultra-catchy brand of gothic metal, blending the mysticism and menace of occult metal with the anthemic buoyant energy of 80s rock.
Alterium - Of War And Flames
Continuing the stylings of her former band Kalidia - who split in 2022 - vocalist Nicoletta Rosellini has rallied with new group Alterium to produce the triumphant, bombastic Of War And Flames. Balanced between the grandeur of symphonic metal and the all-out galloping energy of power metal, Of War And Flames is a fine demonstration of what Rosellini’s new group are capable of, evoking a sense of enormity as the band prepare to release their debut album.
Kaaboos - Wrath Of Gods
If black metal’s chief tenets are of individualism and rebellion, then Kaaboos should be the genre’s newest poster-child. Born in Iran and currently based in Norway, the one-man group formed by Atash - a name translating to fire - staged a protest outside Norway’s Iranian embassy in October 2023, playing vicious black metal tunes whilst draped in an Iranian flag. Provocative, for sure, but also reflective of the blazing bluster of Wrath Of Gods, the instrumental single rising and crashing in a ceaseless, devastating onslaught. One to watch, for sure.
Where Oceans Burn - Static (ft. Aaron Matts)
Manchester metalcore newcomers Where Oceans Burn are coming out swinging with new single Static. Recruiting Ten56. vocalist Aaron Matts for guest vocals, the track sets brutish, jutting hardcore against subtle melodies and thrumming synths, the result resembling the twitchy, glitchy viciousness of Forever-era Code Orange whilst offering a fresh, powerful take on the style. Keep an eye out for the EP The Faces We Portray, due February 9.
