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 AFI’s new single “Behind the Clock.”
This ain’t the hardcore-punk of early AFI you may have grown up listening to anymore. Davey Havok and company have embraced a contemplative gothic rock sound on “Behind the Clock,” the first single from their upcoming album, Silver Bleeds the Black Sun…, set to arrive on October 3rd.
Lush production and swirling guitars create a bed of atmospherics that recalls ’80s acts like The Cult, Psychedelic Furs, and Echo and the Bunnymen. Meanwhile, Havok’s singing is pristine — he reaches a Bowie-esque grandeur that’s tucked perfectly in the mix, as he could easily overtake the instruments with his soaring performance. If the rest of the band’s upcoming album is this good, then AFI might have made one of their best records yet.
Honorable Mentions:
The Armed – “Broken Mirror (feat. Prostitute)”
This is the most brutal of the singles from The Armed’s highly anticipated new album, and that’s saying something. The record promises to be one of the more urgent and zeitgeist-y releases of 2025, and “Broken Mirror” certainly reflects the chaos and turmoil that seem inherent to these times. Detroit act Prostitute lend a hand here with the wash of crushed out powerviolence electronics, with bent and twisted melodies peeking out as the track careens forward.
Belphegor – “Sanctus Diaboli Confidimus”
Blackened death metal titans Belphegor just inked a new deal with Reigning Phoenix Music and rang in the occasion with this nearly-seven-minute epic, “Sanctus Diaboli Confidimus.” The whir of tremolo picking runs throughout much of the track, but pay heed to the rhythmic dynamics of the drumming, as there’s quite a bit going on under the hood of this arrangement, including some unexpected breakdowns and death-doomy sections near the end that are absolutely crushing.
Ho99o9 – “Incline (feat. Nova Twins, Pink Siifu, and Yung Skrrt)”
Ho99o9 are teasing their forthcoming third album as a more emotionally-tinged effort, eschewing some of the overt nu-metal tropes and bombastic imagery of the previous two LPs. Yet, new single “Incline” doesn’t sound too far off from the music they’ve been making this whole time — not a bad thing at all — with its vicious sonic combo of hip-hop, metal, and industrial. In other words, emotional or not, it’s still aggro and uncompromising, which is what we think of when we think of Ho99o9. The verses from the featured acts are also apt, as the whole collective of artists share a propensity for experimentation.
Content shared from consequence.net.