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 Hatebreed’s new single “Make the Demons Obey.”
Hatebreed returned this week with their first new music in five years, unleashing the one-off single “Make the Demons Obey” in the midst of their “Summer Slaughter Tour.”
Jamey Jasta and company are in full crossover-thrash mode here, wielding frenetic riffage at blistering speeds that are slowed only by the obligatory mosh-breakdown section. Since the band’s last album, there’s been a surge of hardcore/thrash acts that wear their Hatebreed influences proudly — Jasta himself appeared on a Kublai Khan TX song (a Heavy Song of the Week pick itself) — and it sounds like some of that contemporary hardcore has seeped back into Hatebreed’s music, especially the more beatdown-y elements present here. There’s also heavy use of gang vocals — totally classic — and Jasta sounds inspired, like he’s been bottling his aggression for these five long years.
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Honorable Mentions:
Baest – “Stormbringer”
Danish act Baest tap into a satisfying death n’ roll sound on ”Stormbringer,” combining classic rock elements — particularly the freewheeling guitarwork and catchy, melodic riffs — with those of death metal (gutturals, atmospheric production flourishes, grinding percussion). The swinging mid-tempo is a nice change of pace, as well, setting this one apart from a lot of the speedier stuff that is often grouped under the death n’ roll sub-genre.
Between the Buried and Me – “Absent Thereafter”
Citing inspirations as disparate as Huey Lewis and Van Halen, BTBAM cooked up another mind-bending prog metal journey with this 10-minute epic. It starts rather brutal, the band in its most extreme mode of metal, but then the curveballs start flying. There are indeed some shreddy and tappy solo parts that conjure EVH’s style, though they’re here and gone, the arrangement never sitting in one place too long. Make sure to stick around for the boogie-rock section near the end.
Bodyweb – “deadwire”
UK “nu-hardcore” act Bodyweb are set to drop their second EP in September, and based on the single “deadwire,” it wouldn’t surprise us if it blew up. The band are pressing all the right nu-metal buttons with massive ka-chunk-ka-chunk riffs and the occasionally skronk — we’re getting some Static-X and Korn vibes — but the vocals and overall aesthetic are more in line with modern hardcore, the band eschewing nu-metal’s cheesier and gothy side in favor of a grittier realness.
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