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 Scowl’s “B.A.B.E.”
Scowl throw it back to the Clinton administration on “B.A.B.E.,” the second single from their upcoming album Are We All Angels.
This sugar-sweet spike of nostalgia is the kind of track that got bands signed to big labels during the post-Nirvana feeding frenzy — an alterna-pop banger that would have flirted with FM rotation in ’93.
There’s a few blasts of hardcore here and there — the sound the band started on — but Scowl are otherwise in grungy guitar mode, invoking CD-era heroes such as Fountains of Wayne, Redd Kross, and No Doubt. The anachronisms don’t stop there: The music video looks like VHS camcorder footage and is in a 4:3 CRT aspect ratio, no less.
Honorable Mentions:
Peter Murphy feat. Trent Reznor – “Swoon”
The warm and seemingly analog production on “Swoon” is immediately striking. With its dance-punk beat and stabs of guitar, the song sounds so ’80s — a credit to producer Youth (aka Martin Glover) of Killing Joke. Throw Trent Reznor in the mix — the NIN provides additional vocals — and this is a bonafide A-list collab all around — a must-listen for anyone who’s a fan of goth/industrial/post-punk and a late-career gem in Bauhaus legend Peter Murphy’s acclaimed canon.
Swervedriver – “The World’s Fair”
Shoegaze pioneers Swervedriver are set to release a new EP, The World’s Fair, on March 7th. The title track and second single is a gorgeous, subdued piece that features prominent piano, though it’s mixed in such a way that the keys seemingly meld with the guitar leads. The textural layering renders Swervedriver’s patented psychedelic swirl, but without the dominating amp volumes generally associated with the band and the shoegaze genre in general.
Tetrarch – “Never Again (Parasite)”
“Never Again (Parasite)” notably features guitarist Diamond Rowe’s first lead vocal parts in a Tetrarch song, and she kills it, adding that dual vocal effect that is a calling card of classic nu-metal. The band was already dishing out some of the strongest modern interpretations of the genre, and this development unlocks a whole slew of new songwriting possibilities going forward.