A Place to Kill

Here at Revolver, we re always on the hunt for new songs to bang our heads to — indeed, it s a big part of our jobs. With that in mind, here are the tracks released this week in metalcore, nu-rock, industrial and more that have been on heavy rotation at Revolver HQ. For your listening pleasure, we ve also compiled the songs in an ever-evolving Spotify playlist. A Place to Kill Jet Engine On the one hand, an industrial titan like Richard Patrick — he of Filter, Nine Inch Nails and more — needs no introduction. That said, his first single with new project A Place to Kill — co-plotted with rock photographer and There Is No Us frontman Jim Louvau — makes for a hell of a hello. The group’s “Jet Engine” is lean but ruthlessly efficient, a steady machine clank and Patrick’s wobble-heavy keyboard tones pushing air around Louvau’s steely-eyed whispers and incensed screams. Baring teeth and booming synth-bass aggression, it’s sure to kill on the dance floor. Avatar Crying Fire Fire and water have been elemental to the latest round of Avatar tracks, from the seafaring “Captain Goat” to the burnt timber that surrounded the band in the video for Don’t Go in the Forest’s title track. New standalone single “Crying Fire” — which was recorded during those same album sessions — is a force of nature that manages to sit between those poles. Driven by tuneful Eighties-style pop-metal arpeggiation, the song has vocalist Johannes Eckerström fever-dream crooning of a forest nap where branches cover his “secret, naked skin.” At first, he’s met with a refreshing morning mist. By song’s end, everything’s covered in a downpour of the sun’s “crying fire.” A passionate trad-metal anthem from the Swedish vets. Converge I Won t Let You Go Hum of Hurt, Converge’s second album of the year, is arguably a more brooding and stretched-out experience than the panicked, tempo-pushing hardcore assaults of Love Is Not Enough. And yet, it still showcases frantic pieces like mid-album wrecker “I Won’t Let You Go,” a damned chaotic yet oddly danceable entry in Converge’s canon. The beats initially shift and twist like a metallic samba before Ben Koller goes beast mode on a Red Bull-charged blitz. Guitars and bass grind through dissonant staccato dynamism. Jacob Bannon howls bleakly of “living in fear of vulnerability,” yet strives for connection. Like many Converge songs before it, it’s delivered with an urgency that ll to grab you at your core. Evanescence Beautiful Lie “I am the power.” Evanescence’s Sanctuary album starts off strong with an ominously-toned, self-empowerment anthem that finds Amy Lee’s lyrical protagonist reclaiming agency (“I don’t belong to you”) and moving on from a time-and-patience-testing emotional battleground (“Baby, this is your war, but it’s killing the both of us”). Lee’s vibrato ebbs and flow from measured melodizing to something monolithic, and comes supported by crow-black nu-hooks, slap-crazed bass playing and more. Fuming Mouth A Blaze of Nihilism A welcomed return with a wild twist, “A Blaze of Nihilism” is the first song from Fuming Mouth to feature their latest drummer, former Slipknot and Suicidal Tendencies skinsman Jay Weinberg. He brings a brutal wallop to the track, but the rest of the New England heavymakes go for broke, too. Together, they torch the intro with earth-scorching intensity before locking into grave-sodden death grooves and an uncouth, out-of-pocket solo from vocalist-guitarist Mark Whelan. It only gets weirder when they close things out with a creeped-out nursery rhyme. Fuming Mouth’s latest heater is meant to be listened to at top volume. The ringing in your ears will be worth it. Mastodon Your Ghost Again The latest Mastodon single may well be their heaviest yet, because it’s the first piece of new music to be released by the iconic metal band since founding guitarist Brent Hinds’ tragic 2025 death. The surviving members grieve in-song through lyrics about how the “world went black,” as well as lines that vocalist-drummer Brann Dailor has suggested are somewhat about sensing their fallen brother-in-arms’ presence in the recording studio with them. Sonically, Mastodon s reflective path forward begins with sludge-fisted riffery that harkens back to the Remission days, before delivering a wistful, whimsical strain of heavy prog. In all, it s a perfectly bittersweet way to open the band s next chapter.

The well has run dry for you and I goes the first line of A Place to Kill s savage debut single Jet Engine, but that s hardly true of the band s two members, Richard Patrick and Jim Louvau. Both are nothing less than prolific. Patrick is of course best known for his long-running industrial-rock outfit Filter, who released their eighth studio album, The Algorithm, in 2023, but his resume also includes the supergroups Army of Anyone (with Stone Temple Pilots Dean and Robert DeLeo and future-Korn drummer Ray Luzier) and the Damning Well (with Limp Bizkit s Wes Borland), as well as a little band called Nine Inch Nails. Louvau, too, has his own main music project, the industrial-metal act There Is No Us, but he s also an award-winning photographer and videographer who s worked with everyone from Chester Bennington and Maynard James Keenan to Corey Taylor and Poppy. With so many creative outlets, neither could be blamed if their respective wells did run a little dry, but judging from A Place to Kill, their new joint project, there s still plenty left in the tank. Indeed, APTK sounds absolutely vital and incendiary on the duo s just-released debut EP, which finds Louvau taking lead vocal duties while Patrick focuses on pummeling beats, twisted bass lines and distorted textures. Lead single Jet Engine is a great showcase of their scathing yet infectious sound. The song was unleashed yesterday (June 3rd) on SiriusXM Octane, but today, it s fittingly glitched-out music video — directed by Tony Aguilar — is getting its world premiere right here right now via Revolver. Watch above. In addition to premiering the video, we also caught up with Patrick and Louvau to get the inside story on A Place to Kill. Read below and look out for a limited vinyl release of their debut EP coming soon. How did you guys meet, and how did A Place to Kill come together?RICHARD PATRICK Jim interviewed me as a journalist and then we kept bumping into each other. One time after a Filter performance in Phoenix, Jim was on our bus and screamed out some lyrics to something and I thought to myself, That guy sounds amazing. When I was working on a Filter song called Murica, I asked Jim to sing back ups on it, and he literally blew me away with his performance. When I came up with the music for a song called “The Killing Field,” I was whispering some stuff and singing, but I wanted something different so I asked Jim to try some stuff and it sounded amazing.JIM LOUVAU Richard Patrick was part of my gateway drug into industrial music as a teenager. I knew of him from his time in Nine Inch Nails from the Wish and Head Like a Hole music videos I d see on MTV. Then I saw the Hey Man Nice Shot video, and I had no idea his voice was so powerful. I loved the Short Bus record, and I saw them live and his scream made my throat hurt before I had ever screamed yet. Years later I interviewed him for the daily newspaper in Phoenix and then we just kept bumping into each other through mutual friends. Then he came to the second-ever There is No Us show in Los Angeles. We d talk every once in a while and he d bring up working together, but we weren t entirely sure what that meant or how to go about it. He invited me to do some backup vocals on Murica, and that was the first time we worked together and he tracked my vocals. It still took some more time to figure out how to get something going on what it should be because we were both in other bands and we wanted to do something that was totally different than Filter or There is No Us. He eventually sent me a couple tracks that were very electronic-driven that were also heavy. Did you guys have an initial vision for the project going in, or did it take shape as you guys worked on it?PATRICK I knew I wanted to do something that was more industrial, trap metal or EDM. Something that could be performed by one or two people. Something very abrasive but digestible at the same time. Something that was reflective of the chaotic screwed-up world.LOUVAU We knew we wanted it to be heavy, but we didn t want a standard guitar-bass-or-drums band situation since we have that in our other projects. This had to be different. What was it like working together after being friends for a while? Did you guys butt heads much?PATRICK The reason why I like this project so much is because it was easy as fuck. Jim and I get along very well, and I wouldn’t be doing it if it were a hassle. Life is too short. I want to work with people that are just talented as fuck, which makes things very easy.LOUVAU We get along very well — I don t have time for bullshit. Richard, what was it like revisiting your heavy industrial roots with this project?PATRICK I love industrial music. I love really heavy music. It was a lot of fun. Adding different kinds of distortion for every single instrument was very satisfying. How did you guys decide that Jim would take lead vocals?PATRICK It was a no-brainer ever since I heard Jim scream into a microphone. I knew I wanted to work on a project with him. He is a very powerful lead vocalist. Tell us specifically about the single Jet Engine. How did that song come together, and what s it about?PATRICK Jet Engine all started off with a sound from my Sequential Pro 3 keyboard. Once I got the baseline rocking, I added some drums and some ambient textures. As far as what it’s about, that s up to you. I would rather you come up with your interpretation of it. To us, It’s a call to arms against the newly forming oligarchy that’s suppressing Western civilization.LOUVAU The Jet Engine of Fuck You was a nickname given to me by producer Sean Beaven who mixed the last There is No Us record, thats how he describes my voice and the style of music I make. The song is very intentionally rebellious and it came together very quickly in the studio and it s as catchy as a cold. Now that the debut EP is out, what are your future plans for A Place to Kill?PATRICK More new music coming your way soon. This was just one little EP. We want to put another one out in the fall.LOUVAU We aren t wasting any time putting more new music out, it s well underway.