Heavy Song of the Week is a feature on Heavy Consequence breaking down the top metal and hard rock tracks you need to hear every Friday. This week the top spot goes to “Silver Lining” by Philly hardcore band Jesus Piece.
The landscape of hardcore has changed immensely since Jesus Piece last released an album in 2018. Bands like Turnstile have brought major exposure to the scene, shining a spotlight at the underground. On one hand, it’s prime time for Jesus Piece to break their silence and return with a new album. Likewise, the bar is higher this time, as astute listeners embrace experimentation and progression versus hardcore and metalcore’s more rote tendencies.
“Silver Lining” is the third single from the Philly band’s upcoming sophomore album, …So Unknown, and the strangest and most compelling of the three so far. Firstly, its slow pace allows the band to dwell in an unsettling dissonance, which creates an uncertainty as to where the song will go next. Aaron Heard’s vocals are also mixed extremely low, an otherwise obtuse decision that ends up enhancing the track’s eerie atmosphere.
From there, the song explodes into a crunching doomed-out breakdown. Quiet vocal passages to build tension before the drop: It’s a technique bands like Deftones have patented — think “My Own Summer (Shove It)” — and Jesus Piece apply it in a most crude and uncompromising fashion. It also so works to balance the track out. Heard’s vocals eventually come in hot during the second verses, maintaining the momentum from the drop while balancing out any unnecessary repetition. If the rest of …So Unknown stacks up to “Silver Lining,” Jesus Piece will be sitting on one of the best heavy albums of the year.
–Jon Hadusek,
Senior Staff Writer
Honorable Mentions:
Frozen Soul – “Arsenal of War”
Frozen Soul were simply too good to be contained in the Texas DIY metal scene. On the strength of a sole demo (Encased in Ice, 2019), the Fort Worth death metal band was swooped up Nuclear Blast and luminaries such as Trivium’s Matt Heafy have declared their fandom. It’s Heafy who is co-producing Frozen Soul’s sophomore effort for Nuclear Blast, Glacial Domination, and if single “Arsenal of War” is any indication, he’s letting the band ride the same sound that got it here. This is classic old-school death metal delivered in glorious hi-fi, with every growl, divebomb, and downtuned riff hitting with total clarity.
MSPAINT – “Decapitated Reality”
The anticipated debut album from synth-punk act MSPAINT delivered on the hype, and a couple tracks caught our ear over at Heavy Consequence. “Decapitated Reality,” in particularly, sounds like a futuristic take on heavy metal — a foreshadowing of where we might be headed as analog and digital become indiscernible from one another. The track is just over three minutes long, but MSPAINT traverse cybergrind, screamo, and mellow alt-metal in that short span, leaving little breathing room in the arrangement. Perhaps the most alarming (and intriguing) inclusion on this week’s rundown.
OTTTO – “Dance of the Dead”
“Better than the new Metallica song,” reads one cheeky comment on the video for OTTTO’s “Dance of the Dead” — the latest track from the band featuring Robert Trujillo’s son Tye. While we’re not so sure about that, the song is fun, unpretentious thrash that definitely has a hint of Metallica to it — though the punk elements skew it more toward the elder Trujillo’s prior band Suicidal Tendencies. There’s also a tangible Billy Joe Armstrong vibe to the vocals. A strong effort from the young band, and a lavish video to boot (that spooky carnival sequence would have been right at home on grunge-era MTV, plus look for a cameo from Tye’s famous dad).