Primus

So many things happened this week in metal, from a captured killer to a last minute surprise from our boys in Converge.

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 thrash, nu-gaze, djent 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. Anthrax It s For the Kids Anthrax are back in the madhouse. Won’t you join them? It has been a long time coming, but the New York thrash icons are finally pulling the trigger on their first LP in over a decade, and they’ve fired off a serious heater with Cursum Perficio’s introductory “It’s For the Kids.” Scott Ian leans into insanity-spiraling whammy bends before the group lock in with an intensely aggressive, singularly anthemic arrangement. The band and their fans bash the hell out of each other in the asylum-set music video. Pure, glorious metal madness. Beartooth Pure Ecstasy As it was foretold, a demon has been awakened within Beartooth vocalist Caleb Shomo, and he’s waging war with the world on the band’s new, heavy-edged “Pure Ecstasy.” Shomo has been undergoing personal and artistic metamorphoses, going by the lyrics to this and Beartooth’s recent “Free” single. With this latest cut — the title track to their next LP — he lets it be known that the pressure cooker has hit its boiling point and he s sick of holding himself back. Accordingly, he fully pummels the cut with a bunch of grizzly growls. Full of big-time chugs and earworm heaviness, this one was co-written by Periphery guitarist Misha Mansoor — who we’ll get back to in a second. Casey Edwards Amira Elfeky Bazooka “My bazooka/Make the devils cry.” Composer Casey Edwards tapped rising alt-metal artist Amira Elfeky to sing on this track for the second season of Netflix anime Devil May Cry. While Elfeky generally brings a cool and confident croon to lines about packing “smoking sexy” artillery, the song — titled after the Kalina Ann rocket launcher hoisted by Devil May Cry’s Lady — also finds her bringing hellacious screams to the table. Edwards pairs all that with guitar-heavy, nu-bombastic explosiveness. Periphery Subhuman (Feat. Will Ramos) As you may expect, Periphery crack into subsonic djent grooves by the metric ton across their newly released LP, A Pale White Dot. While guitarists Misha Mansoor, Jake Bowen and Mark Holcomb deliver a series of freaked-out screeches and ungodly low-tuned tones on the album, a symphony of screams take center stage on “Subhuman” — both thematically, and vis-à-vis the brutal duet going on between vocalist Spencer Sotelo and Lorna Shore’s Will Ramos. The verses get nasty (“Eat, shit and breathe, but the oxygen is here for me”), but the backend breakdown is where the pair harness the “purest hate.” Primus The Ol Grizz The Ol’ Diamondback Sturgeon. Tommy the Cat. Wynona’s big brown beaver. And now the Ol’ Grizz. Primus’ animal kingdom continues to grow with a new treasure-seekin’ song about a prospector coming face-to-face with a giant bear. There’s gold in them thar arrangements, with bassist Les Claypool pulling off a dizzying array of string dynamics throughout the tap-crazed verses, a slap-happy groove and a mid-song low-end solo. Not to be outdone, Larry “Ler” LaLonde offers a stupendously bizarre fret-crawl of his own. Split Chain scatterbrain UK nu-gazers Split Chain will soon be expanding last year’s Revolver-approved motionblur to include alternate takes with guest vocals from members of Roman Candle, False Reality and more. That deluxe edition will also sport the gauzy anthem that is their newly-debuted “scatterbrain.” The track centers in on some of the Bristol quintet’s greatest strengths: bittersweet, effects-soaked guitar hooks, driving post-hardcore propulsion, and the power-ached vocal vulnerability of frontman Bert Martinez-Cowles. The singer said the song is about people pulling away from each other, and the resulting feelings of abandonment. Nothing to worry about here: By the sounds of it, we’re not going to ghost this one anytime soon.