Singled Out is our weekly column to round-up the singles and new tracks from the past week dropped by bands we cover. Consider this our weekly mix to help keep you all on top of the latest releases from across the metallic and progressive spectrums. Read past entries here, and go on ahead below to get Singled Out!
Born of Osiris – “Resilience”
Being a fan of older Born of Osiris material isn’t easy. Considering the band started off with technical, overly syncopated deathcore and slowly transformed into djent with more emphasis on mood and simpler songs, it’s a pretty understandable position. Every time they release new material fans go through the dance of thinking “Is it going to be technical?” and ending up disappointed. Since most older fans have all but written them off, “Resilience” comes as a huge shock. Back is the technical, syncopated riffing, combined with the best elements of their newer sound like memorable leads over chugging patterns and atmospheric keyboards. There’s even a blast beat section that’s straight up awesome. As one of those fans who had written them off, this song makes me interested again. It’s the shot in the arm the band so desperately needed. Considering their track record and the first single, it might be too early to get excited for their upcoming album yet, but for the first time in years, waiting for new Born of Osiris material is exciting instead of depressing.
-Noyan Tokgozoglu
Caspian – “Arcs of Command”
Caspian are back once again with another single, and this time it’s for the beast that is “Arcs Of Command”. The song starts with a cool electronic intro, which gives it a very chilled out vibe, similarly to if you were jamming The Flashbulb or something akin to it. The rest builds up into this great big crescendo that gives way to some super heavy guitar riffing. At times the sound cherrypicks from sludge, and has a grimey, dirty feel lurking within it. The guitars are constantly working hard to create different melodies, and I don’t think any one guitar plays the same thing as another. The constant influx of new soundscapes really makes this song pop, and is making me even more hyped up for this album. It appears as though Caspian really set out to make a very dark record, because after jamming this, in addition to the other two singles, I can already tell this will be the heaviest, most hard-hitting thing Caspian has done, and if the band can do that well, (and they seem to be thus far), who knows where that will take them.
-Spencer Snitil
Frontierer – “Bleak”
“Bleak” is exactly that. Imagine a world where Skynet succeeded in leaving the planet a burning wasteland. Frontierer are the soundtrack to this happening. A constant barrage of precise, abusive drum hits and guitars that seem more machine than man (in terms of attack and tone, let’s not forget the human element behind the music!) leave nothing to the imagination. This is the most intense track you will hear this week, I promise. The middle section runs through several shifts in tone and pace before imploding with an oppressive run of open string abuse. Fucking magic stuff.
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-Matt MacLennan
Gorod – “Temple of the Art God”
Can Gorod do no wrong? Hot off the heels of “Celestial Nature”, the absolutely glorious first single from forthcoming album A Maze of Recycled Creeds, “Temple of the Art God” is a complete barn burner in its own right, with absolutely unrelenting riffage making up the majority of the four minute track. While perhaps not as dynamic as “Celestial Nature”, “Temple” harkens back to the more tech death aspects of Gorod’s sound instead of focusing more on their eclectic side, and is somewhat reminiscent “Birds of Sulphur” from previous album A Perfect Absolution in that sense. Either way, it remains that Gorod can indeed do no wrong, and “Temple” does a magnificent job of what it sets out to achieve, with a surprisingly catchy chorus to boot.
-Ahmed Hasan
Hooded Menace – “Elysium of Dripping Death”
Despite the death/doom tag that Hooded Menace have earned with their past three full-lengths, “Elysium of Dripping Death” seems to indicate that album number four — Darkness Drips Forth — will focus largely on the latter genre. This eleven minute monster is one of four apparent dirges, the shortest of which rests just under ten minutes. However, after listening to this lead single, one will hope that these lengths will end up being justified. As alluded to earlier, very little death appears on the track; all of the heavy influences can be traced very clearly to funeral doom. Yet, the execution, while not bad, is not particularly thrilling either. Many of the doom elements manifest in a funeral base thst sees more traditional doom soloing sprouting up after the main riff has been repeated a certain number of times. Again, while HM does nothing wrong within this approach, the track does little more than plug along and produce moderate enjoyment. Attacking funeral doom necessitates feeling; what blurs such grandiose run times is the consuming emotions that bleed from enormous guitars strung with heart strings. Bell Witch‘s Four Phantoms has provided enough quality for the entire year, and doom fans should brace their tear ducts if Lycus comes through with a full length as well. HM misses the key ingredient that these two examples utilize; instead of spawning gripping emotion from intense, textured epics, “Elysium of Dripping Death” inspires impatience with a distinct level of competency that amounts to little more than polite head bobbing and a concluding shrug.
-Scott Murphy
Scale the Summit – “Blue Sun”
Scale the Summit are definitely one of the most dependable instrumental metal bands in the game, and “Blue Sun” takes things in an even more fun direction than before. Things are still just as dazzlingly-technical as ever, but everything just feels way more present, quirky, and well-rounded as ever. Though the song almost never repeats, there’s still plenty of moments to get instantly sucked into, and one hell of a combination of shreddy guitars and funky, slap-laden bass lines. While The Migration was definitely a cool record, “Blue Sun” certainly lays the groundwork for what to expect out of V; a much more entertaining piece of work.
-Kit Brown
Underling – “Servant of Filth”
The name Underling should ring a few bells to avid Heavy Blog readers: the Bay Area sorta-supergroup containing members of Fallujah, Arkaik, Battlecross, and Sidian takes a leap from the death metal roots of its members and voyages into black metal territory. “Servant of Filth” puts a spin on the Americanized atmospheric black metal sound dominated by tremolo picking and blastbeats by offering a filthy propulsive bass groove that seems like the sort of thing Altar of Plagues would have built a song upon. Underling also takes a brief foray into crust punk at the halfway point before taking off headlong into a beautifully orchestrated “chorus” of sorts that makes the track absolutely larger than life. If Underling weren’t on your radar before, they’d better fucking be now.
The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die – “I Can Be Afraid of Anything”
As far as post rock-entwined emo goes, there are few bands as well known as The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die, and none with as long of a name. And, while I may despise typing out their full name due to the sheer length of it, I can’t help but absolutely fall in love with their new track, a beautiful, 7-minute romp exploring depression and the difficulty that comes with it. The song is stamped with TWIABP trademarks, including pretty, shimmery riffs that dominate a mellow, quiet middle part in the song before crescendo-ing along with David Bello’s signature semi-whiny, semi-shouted vocals. And, of course, there is plenty of wonderful little synth lines to perfectly compliment everything else, as synth always does. The best part by far, however, is that they decided NOT to do any more collaborations with that spoken word artist, as they did on Between Bodies, whose lyrical work was the equivalent of a “true poet” currently enrolled in his intro to poetry class. It’s good to see that The World Is is back on track and that, luckily, we will soon have a stunning new album to stare gloomily out car windows or lie on our backs to.
-Jake Tiernan