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 “10,000 Volts” by Ace Frehley.
Ace Frehley conveniently lined up the press rollout for his forthcoming album 10,000 Volts to coincide with KISS’ final concerts. In a way, it epitomizes the duality that exists between Ace and KISS: forever linked, yet moving at separate, parallel trajectories. And considering the recent trash talk between the guitarist and his former bandmates, there’s no sign of reconciliation in sight — much less a chance of Ace appearing during the final shows at Madison Square Garden.
But Frehley has always been strong on his own, and whether Paul Stanley or Gene Simmons like it or not, Ace’s solo work will always be required listening for any true card-carrying member of the KISS Army. The title track for his upcoming album sizzles with a joy and lightheartedness that recalls arguably his best non-KISS album, Frehley’s Comet, and the overall pop-metal craftsmanship of the tune is a noticeable step up from Frehley’s last solo effort — a credit to the creative involvement of Trixter’s Steve Brown.
With KISS at the end of the road, quite literally, fans can take solace in the fact that Frehley still has some late-career bangers left in the tank — a sort of twisted consolation for the fact that the estrangement from his old band appears to be permanent.
Honorable Mentions:
Darkest Hour – “Perpetual Terminal”
The opening title track from Darkest Hour’s upcoming album Perpetual | Terminal touts an almost uplifting, positive brand of aggression. The band has always had plenty of melody in its metalcore, and here its shot ever skyward, belying the bleak connotations otherwise associated with the band’s name, the song title, and guttural extreme metal in general.
Bruce Dickinson – “Afterglow of Ragnarok”
After previously teasing the track, Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson shared the full version of “Afterglow of Ragnarok” — the lead single from The Mandrake Project. The eight-minute epic will certainly appease the Maiden faithful with its narrative lyrics and progressive leanings. Tone-wise, this is quite a bit heavier and grittier than say, Senjutsu, so we’re curious to hear how the rest of Dickinson’s concept album unfolds.
P.O.D. – “Afraid to Die (feat. Jinjer’s Tatiana Shmayluk)”
P.O.D. are definitely playing the nostalgia card with their new songs, honing in on the rap-metal style that made them famous around the turn of the millennium. On their second single of 2023, “Afraid to Die,” frontman Sonny Sandoval charismatically spits rhymes over Marcos Curiel’s riffs, while Jinjer singer Tatiana Shmayluk provides some very nu-metal-esque clean vocal passages. Sandoval doesn’t sound like he’s aged a day, and the anthemic sing-along chorus even harkens back to the band’s big hit “Youth of the Nation.”