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 “Environmental Catastrophe Film” by La Dispute.
Strap in, because La Dispute’s nine-minute “Environmental Catastrophe Film” ain’t no quick hitter. Singer Jordan Dreyer’s narrative gradually bores in and ensnares the listener’s attention, the Slint-style spoken word delivery rendered strangely captivating in this age of the podcast. Meanwhile, the words dictate and partially orchestrate an arrangement that melds post-hardcore with the exploratory open-endedness of prog and post-rock. Dreyer’s vocals pick up to devastating screamo howls as the music and story cascade linearly to the tracks’s inevitable climax of crushing breakdowns.
Following the three-song “Act One” suite, “Environmental Catastrophe Film” functions as “Act Two” of La Dispute’s upcoming album No One Was Driving the Car, which is setting up to be their most literarily conceptual full-length to date.
Honorable Mentions:
Between the Buried and Me – “Things We Tell Ourselves in the Dark”
Between La Dispute and Between the Buried and Me, it was a good week for long prog-y songs. BTBAM’s “Things We Tell Ourselves in the Dark” opens with a jazz-funk riff that sounds like Japanese city pop. The band eventually steer things into more metal territories around the three-minute mark as the harsh vocals creep in, the band weaving through prog workouts across the rollercoaster track’s eight-minute runtime before bookending with more funk riffs.
Motörhead – “Leavin’ Here”
The ongoing Motörhead archival dump has been an enjoyable ride so far, and there’s no end in sight. How The Manticore Tapes got shelved for so long is a mystery, as it’s some of the more intriguing material we’ve heard from the archive, documenting the formative era of the band in 1976. The minimal production and rawness of this cover of “Leavin’ Here” drives home the punk influences in the band’s sound at this time.
Orange 9mm – “Turn It Up”
You gotta love a track that commands you to “Turn it up!” This is the Heavy Song of the Week rundown, after all, and nearly 100% of the songs we feature here sound better if you crank that volume knob a notch. The danceable post-hardcore skronk riffs are in full effect on this joyous tune — the NYC act’s first new song in 26 years and a shot of sheer positivity. Welcome back!
Content shared from consequence.net.