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 Kerry King’s fiery debut solo single “Idle Hands.”
We really should have heard Kerry King’s long-awaited solo material before now. The Slayer axeman was prepped to launch his new chapter shortly after his legendary thrash band called it a day at the end of 2019, but the pandemic halted progress on the project. King decided to play the long game instead, occasionally reminding us that he’d debut new music soon enough, once the air cleared.
At long last, the guitarist made the big reveal this week in the form of “Idle Hands,” the lead single from his forthcoming album, From Hell I Rise. And as expected — and we wouldn’t want it any other way — the song is a direct extension of Slayer (and the Repentless album in particular). In other words: full bore thrash laced with King’s riff-work and signature spasmodic soloing.
We especially love the choice of Death Angel’s Mark Osegueda on lead vocals, a somewhat underrated thrash veteran who’s been on the frontlines of the genre since its heyday. The rest of King’s solo band is rounded out by drummer Paul Bostaph (Slayer), bassist Kyle Sanders (Hellyeah), and guitarist Phil Demmel (ex-Machine Head), making for a killer lineup.
Honorable Mentions:
Blue Öyster Cult – “So Supernatural”
We’ll admit, when we read “new Blue Öyster Cult album” and “AI” in the same press release, we furrowed our brow. The rock legends’ new album Ghost Stories is constructed of archival material from the late ’70s and early ’80s that has been “de-mixed” and “re-mixed” — in the band’s own terminology — using AI enhancement and physical studio re-recordings by surviving BÖC members. Thankfully, if there’s any AI at work on the single “So Supernatural,” it’s unintelligible to the ear or utilized in the mixing process, as the song sounds like the classic real-life Blue Öyster Cult and the Spectres era specifically.
Boundaries – “Easily Erased”
Boundaries are a rising Connecticut-based post-hardcore act that take an amorphous approach to the genre. Initially, the single “Easily Erased” presents itself as a metallic harsher, but the song opens into delightfully melodic territory when co-vocalist and drummer Tim Sullivan takes the mic. The harsh-melodic duality recalls cult bands like Far and Touché Amoré and should allow Boundaries — a misnomer in this case — to stretch beyond the borders of rote one-trick hardcore and metalcore.
Necrot – “Cut the Cord”
Considering Necrot play old-school death metal and their upcoming album is called Lifeless Birth, one would suspect some deprated and gorey lyrical content from a single like “Cut the Cord.” While the track does ooze with thick, copious riffage, the lyrical premise is actually one of thoughtful cultural reflection — albeit a grim one. “People have their heads buried in their phones, constantly eating from a plate full of shit,” said vocalist/bassist Luca Indrio of the song’s meaning, “and the awful future we all didn’t want is now our present.” Cue the pounding death metal; a fitting soundtrack to our dystopia.