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 honor goes to Polar’s “We Won’t Sleep.”
The oft-maligned genres of nu-metal and rap rock are long overdue for a reevaluation, and festivals such as Sick New World have proven that there’s still a market for the music — a nostalgia for it, even.
Perhaps aware of these trends, UK metalcore act Polar go all-in on the nu-metal revival with their latest single “We Won’t Sleep.” Frontman Adam Woodford literally spits his lines — you can hear the phlegm dislodging — against grooved out, mosh-churning riffs. It conjures a not-so-distant past when songs like this dominated the radio, and Polar’s complete lack of irony is refreshing and necessary for the song to work. These guys are dead serious — even as they walk the streets B-Boy style in the music video.
Honorable Mentions:
Cold Cave – “Blueberries”
“Blueberries” opens with two loud industrial crashes, prompting the mind to recall Einstürzende Neubauten. A clever trick from Cold Cave: shock the listener to grab their attention, then steer things elsewhere. The rest of the track is more in the group’s typical industrial/darkwave wheelhouse, with lush synthesizers and vintage drum machines creating the ideal bed music for the deep, forlorn vocals, ala Depeche Mode and New Order.
Gasket – “Syndicate”
Baltimore is an absolute hotbed for hardcore right now, and you can add Gasket to the roll call of badass bands in that scene. “Syndicate” is fit for a crusty mosh at an abandoned warehouse, wielding the pure aggression that has always been the motivation for playing hardcore and fast punk in general. No artsy pretentious here.
Highly Suspect – “Summertime Voodoo”
Highly Suspect threw their fans a bit of a curveball with the synth-pop on their previous two albums. There are still some electronic touches on their new single “Summertime Voodoo,” but the band adopts a more psych/stoner rock sound here. The result is a lengthy seven-minute workout that’s appropriately complemented by hazy desert motorcycle cam footage in the music video.