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 Fleshgod Apocalypse for their new single “Bloodclock.”
The extreme metal of Fleshgod Apocalypse is so ornate and lavish, it doesn’t seem to exist on this worldly plane. It possesses an air of the fantastical and the literary.
Therefore it’s intriguing that the band’s upcoming album Opera and specifically the lead single “Bloodclock” were inspired by the very real near-death experience of Fleshgod mastermind Francesco Paoli.
Paoli was involved in a mountain climbing accident in 2021 that left him hanging unconscious from a rope a few hundred meters above the ground. Paoli suffered injuries, but thankfully he survived the horrific scare.
Pondered Paoli in the press announcement for the new song: “What do we see right before we die? Well, with ‘Bloodclock’ I bear my witness and reveal the personal visions I had…”
The track’s harrowing arrangement — an amalgamation of brutal, claustrophobic death metal and lush symphonic elements — harnesses a desperation and urgency that simply cannot be faked or mimed. The music moves, shifts, and turns corners as if it’s fleeing from death itself. Fleshgod have always championed such compositional decadence, but in breaking the third wall, they grip the listener both by heart and mind.
Honorable Mentions:
Alcest – “Komorebi”
If you didn’t know you were listening to Alcest and you heard the intro to “Komorebi” — the opening track of the band’s freshly released album Les Chants De L’Aurore — you’d be hard-pressed to recognize the band, let the alone the genre, you were hearing. The French duo smears the lines between shoegaze, post-rock, and black metal, crafting refreshingly original music that could appeal to fans of any of those styles. On this track, the soaring clean vocals and blast beats eventually reveal that this is indeed Alcest, as there are few bands that combine those ostensibly contrasting elements so well.
Crobot – “Come Down”
Crobot mark a sonic shift on “Come Down,” the lead single from their freshly announced album Obsidian. The Pennsylvania band are usually more on the upbeat, bluesier side of heavy psych/stoner metal, but drummer Dan Ryan brought his grunge influences to the forefront here, co-penning the track with singer Brandon Yeagley. The latter’s world-class pipes have long been compared to those of greats like Chris Cornell, and with the band playing around with darker riffs and atmospheres, this new song hits an Alice in Chains/Soundgarden threshold that is timelessly satisfying.
Mr. Big – “Up on You”
Mr. Big’s latest single is a joyous hard-rock strutter bolstered by crystal-clear production and the top-notch performances typical of the veteran act (which does have a pair of virtuosos in its ranks in guitarist Paul Gilbert and bassist Billy Sheehan). The band has some fun with a descending scale and some pop flare in the chorus — a trademark of Gilbert’s songcraft — while singer Eric Martin exercises his impressive vocal range throughout the track. On the heels of two strong singles, Mr. Big’s Ten is setting up to be the feel-good hard rock album of the summer.