Wipe the blood from your teeth and get in the pit: it’s time for a recap of this week’s best hardcore, metal, and punk rock. It’s a new year and the perfect time to get amped up on some new heavy tunes. Looking for some new death metal to bring into your life? Got you covered. Need some grindcore to get your wedding reception off on the right foot? Say no more. Strap in, kiddies; it’s time to rock.
Weltesser is about to unleash one hell of a debut album. These guys came out of nowhere (Florida, actually) and put together one of the heaviest, bleakest records we’ve ever heard. Crestfallen is a raw and bitter experience, a violent beast of an album that can sonically pummel listeners into submission. It’s oozing feedback and darkness. Weltesser might be flying under your radar right now, but that needs to change. This band deserves your attention. They demand it. Crestfallen certainly proves they are a force to be reckoned with. Pre-order this monster now.
Nobody sings sorrow quite like The Menzingers. Their new album, After the Party, is shaping up to be one of the band’s best. We’ve heard a couple tracks so far and they are all great; now the fine folks at Stereogum have shared the album’s title track and it’s probably the best Menzingers song we’ve ever heard. Okay, maybe that’s taking it a bit far, but it’s really, really good. Melodic, sad, and catchy, it’s everything we love about the band. We’re pumped for After the Party, no doubt.
As the release of Crossover Ministry inches closer, more and more Iron Reagan tracks trickle into our earholes. Case in point, “Bleed the Fifth,” which you can watch the music video for below. The song is classic Iron Reagan; tons of thrash mixed with a shout-along chorus. The video is a strange little tale of a corrupt cop and his partner. It’s got guns, drugs, and strippers, so it fits with Iron Reagan’s general themes just fine, even if it’s a bit more cinematic than you’d expect from this band. Crossover Ministry is a kickass album and “Bleed the Fifth” is a kickass song and Iron Reagan is a band that kicks so much ass. Asses will be kicked.
If nothing else, Rebel Wizard wins points for their awesome name. Just say it out loud. “Rebel Wizard.” So weird and wonderful. As luck would have it, this band with an awesome name also makes awesome music. Take a listen to “Trampled by Wolves and Sheep” below; it’s a laser-fast number filled with blazing riffs and intense screeching. Just listening to this song will make your brain fry and your blood boil. It’s so fast and so good, like injecting caffeine straight into your veins. Rebel Wizard, we like you. We like your name and we like your ripping tunes.
Career Suicide make mean, hardcore punk. They make the good stuff; the sort of stuff we want to drizzle on our pancakes and eat in the morning. They make rapid-fire punk that hits you like broken glass. Some bands slow down as they age, but after a decade and a half, Career Suicide is still whipping up circle pits and knocking out teeth. This stuff is just good ol’ fashion hardcore punk and that is exactly what America needs right now. We could all use a little time in the pit.
(NPR)
We’ll finish off this week by getting weird with some animals. Horseneck just released a video for their song “Michael Caine” and it’s a banger. The song is freaking great, a mix of ’90s grunge, stoner metal, post-hardcore, and noise, Horseneck rock and rock hard. Think Whores. mixed with Kyuss meets Soundgarden and Unsane. The actual video is just the band dressed like animals while they party hard. It’s basically nightmare fuel. Wonderfully bizarre, it’s the exact opposite of the hardcore track it’s paired with. But hey, opposites attract and everything about this pairing works for us. We like to get weird and we like hard rocking bands, so Horseneck is an A+ in our book.
(CLRVYNT)
Okay, that’s it for us this week. 2017 is shaping up nicely in the music department, right? Let us know what metal, hardcore, and/or punk you’re thrashing to in the comments below.
Image: Prosthetic Records/Weltesser
Gif:Â Cartoon Network
Benjamin Bailey writes for the Nerdist and can be found on Twitter talking about Godzilla, comic books, and hardcore music.
