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 Rise Against’s new single “Nod.”
Rise Against dropping their first new song in three years during inauguration week is no coincidence. The Chicago band has a long history of decrying political and social injustices in its melodic punk rock, melding powerful messages to catchy and often uplifting anthems like “Nod.”
Rather than taking a nihilistic and defeatist view of the status quo, frontman Tim McIlrath’s lyrics are far more positive, encouraging communal building and the collective urge for change. Rather than raising a pitchfork and shouting at the sky in anger, he sings directly to his audience about the positive impact they can make together if they want to enact change they hope to see. It’s something a lot of people could stand to hear right now, as the days indeed seem dark.
Honorable Mentions:
Cradle of Filth – ”To Live Deliciously”
By contrast, Cradle of Filth’s “To Live Deliciously” is an ode to personal independence and self-sufficiency — certainly one way to deal with the noise of the outside world. “The song is about the celebration of life,” commented Dani Filth. “Of indulging in everything unfettered from the conformities of religion, fashion or state. Free from guilt or constraint. As nature intended.” Torrents of riffage, coupled with Dani’s harsh vocals, run through the verses, while the chorus sees the band open into more melodic territory with clean guitar leads and more discernible lyrics. All in all, the track runs the gamut of CoF’s amorphous extreme metal style.
Dream Theater – “Midnight Messiah”
Not only is drummer Mike Portnoy behind the kit again in Dream Theater, but he’s back to contributing lyrics, too. “Midnight Messiah” features his first lyrical contributions since 2009, and as Portnoy said, the words contain a few Easter Eggs for hardcore DT fans who recall his past lyrics for the band. Musically, it’s probably the most straightforward of the Parasomnia singles, with a hard-rock tilt that is subjugated by some satisfying soloing and melodic sections during the track’s latter half.
SUMAC and Moor Mother – “Scene 1”
To carry off the prior entries for Rise Against and CoF, another response to desperate times is that of human creativity. The new collaboration between sludge metallers SUMAC and avant-jazz poet Moor Mother is definitely that — unbridled sheer human creativity as a form of catharsis. “Scene 1” is the first part in what is meant to be taken as a whole, an LP entitled The Film, and sees SUMAC exploring their free-jazz improv side, provoking the pen and words of Moor Mother (the music was recorded first) as a sort of reverse soundtrack, the album title thus being quite appropriate.