Heavy Song of the Week is a feature on Heavy Consequence breaking down the top metal, punk, and hard rock tracks you need to hear every Friday. This week, No. 1 goes to Quicksand’s “Supercollider.”
“Supercollider” is as no-frills as it gets for a Quicksand song — simple song structure, sub three-minute runtime, and very riffy.
But the post-hardcore vets make the entirety of those three minutes invigorating, riding a top-shelf riff that lets everybody dig in on their instrument and create a maximal sound that belies the fact that Quicksand are just a three piece: guitar, bass, and drums. Walter Schreifels’ seemingly ageless vocals are the finishing touch — his shout-singing soaring high in the mix, as crisply melodic and impassioned as his takes on Slip way back in ’93. The track highlights Quicksand’s new split EP with Hot Water Music.
Honorable Mentions:
Full of Hell and Andrew Nolan – “Sphere of Saturn” (feat. Justin K. Broadrick)
We’ve been eager to hear this collaborative track between Full of Hell, Andrew Nolan, and Justin K. Broadrick (Godflesh) ever since Full of Hell and Nolan announced their joint album Scraping the Divine. And it doesn’t disappoint. A truly equal collab, no one appears to dominate the sonic palette, instead fusing their collective powers into a wash of industrial sludge: the sound of “voltage controlled motors on amplified springs and sheet metal,” according to Nolan, bolstered by the harsh vocals of Dylan Walker and Broadrick’s textural guitarwork.
Unto Others – “Pet Sematary”
We played up the Halloween festiveness with our previous HSOTW selection, but we had to include at least one spooky tune in this week’s rundown, as well. With that in mind, Unto Others’ cover of the Ramones’ “Pet Sematary” was a shoe-in. The classic song was ripe for a goth metal interpretation and sounds fantastic in the hands of the Portland band, one of the best modern practitioners of the genre.
Volume – “Spacebaby”
Stoner rock supergroup Volume (featuring former members of Fu Manchu and Monster Magnet) are back with their first full-length album in over 20 years, Joy of Navigation, a 30-minute trip of fuzzed out riffs and boisterous desert psych. The album’s closing track “Spacebaby” sports arguably the tightest riff and groove out of the LP’s five tracks, which are marked by a rawness that tends to be smoothed away on most stoner albums in favor of thicker low end. There’s a garage-y realness to the production here that’s refreshing.