Kate Feast
July 22, 2024| Dan Hillier |FEATURES
Death Goals, Drug Church, Chat Pile and More: New Noizze – The 28 Must-Listen Tracks of the Week
A big ol' bumper edition to make up for missing last week on account of 2000 Trees, here's the best singles of the last two weeks.
Death Goals – Knife Bouquet (Feat. Matt Reynolds)
Hit play and you’re immediately transported to Death Goals‘ world of socially aware, hard-hitting hardcore. “Knife Bouquet” finds them in their usual all-encompassing form, from the soaring melodic chorus to the glitchy overwhelming heavy breakdown that sees the track out Death Goals run the gamut of the various hardcore subgenres to produce a diamond hard song, that delivers energy up the wazoo. Incidentally, if you haven’t seen them live and you like a chaotic, energetic good time, then make sure you go and check them out. For a two-piece they don’t half own that stage. – Rob Bown
Drug Church – Demolition Man
There are few bands in the scene at the moment who, on a lyrical level, can go toe to toe with Drug Church. At times scathing metaphor with a dose of unpleasant reality thrown in for good measure, they continue to show that off on ‘Demolition Man’, the second single from the Albany, NY upcoming fifth record Prude. Sonically, it’s more of their blend of 90s alternative rock and barrelling, punky hardcore, guaranteed to inspire some vicious dancing across the globe. Patrick Kindlon’s voice is instantly recognisable at this point, delivering his lines into your ear like a slightly deranged drill sergeant. It all wraps into a tight package that, much like the rest of their music, wastes no time in getting both its point and aural barrage across. – Chris Earl
Chat Pile – I Am Dog Now
Raygun Busch’s unmistakeable vocals seem to have taken on a sort of evolution between Chat Pile’s last release God’s Country and the upcoming release Cool World, becoming more tortured and strained on the new single ‘I Am Dog Now.’ The sludgy, off-kilter noise rock is still writ large all over the track, with it eventually devolving into a typical Chat Pile groove-ridden, weed-enhanced mess. The song feels more rounded, which can only be a good thing, maybe a little more depth in the recording process has added additional elements that increase the dark atmosphere that they so easily tap into. Either way, get hype for more beat poetry sludge, because as usual, it slaps. – Rob Bown
FORT – Three of Swords
Cardiff based rising stars of post-rock FORT return with their dramatic new single ‘Three Of Swords’, blending airy guitar-led ambience and tense, technical riffs inspired by the very best of the UK instrumental rock scene. Steadily building up across a relatively restrained runtime, ‘Three Of Swords’ finds a perfect balance between the understated atmospheres of Caspian or Explosions In The Sky and the climactic, over the top guitar work of And So I Watch You From Afar or Russian Circles. With just enough urgency to keep the tension rising before snapping in a driving, bass forward breakdown, FORT demonstrate why they’re a name to keep an eye on through their immersive songwriting on ‘Three Of Swords’. – Bruce
The None – Pigs Need Feeding
Pigs Need Feeding is the first single from new UK supergroup The None (featuring members of Cassels, Youth Man, Frauds & Bloc Party) and its intensity matches that from their headline tour earlier this year. Wearing their fandom of The Jesus Lizard firmly on their sleeve, The None is more than the sum of each of the members. The guitars clang and vocalist Kaila Whyte’s apocalyptic cries are a ruthless frenzy. With a London headline show this Wednesday, and a tour supporting Metz later this year, EP Matter is going to rip through any speakers you give it to. – Mia Thunderska
And So I Watch You From Afar – Years Ago
Straddling the thin line between child-like giddiness and quiet reflection in a way that that only this band are capable of, the new single from post-rock stalwarts is downtempo ditty in the key of bittersweet nostalgia. The third track to be lifted from the band’s eagerly anticipated new LP Megafauna – released August 9th via Pelagic – ‘Years Ago’ revists the cheery textures that bounded All Hail Bright Futures and Heirs whilst intertwining them with the sentimentalism that clearly lies centre of their upcoming record. With it’s loops and classic call-and-response dynamics, this is classic ASIWYFA, albiet in a way that harkens towards the growth the band have experiences over the passing years that mature one and all. – Dan Hillier
Japandroids – Chicago
The living definition of “dudes rock” are back with their first new music since 2017. It’s Japandroids. If you’ve heard them before you know what you’re going to get, anthemic tributes to those nights out you’ll never forget in the form of 2-3 minute long songs that are laced with the most potent catharsis. ‘Chicago’ is the first single from their upcoming final album Fate & Alcohol. Just like every night that you’ll never forget, it always has to end eventually. – Mia Tunderska
Militarie Gun – Thought You Were Waving
It’s been a whirlwind couple of years for Militarie Gun, with last year’s Life Under the Gun propelling them to huge heights. ‘Thought You Were Waving’ marks their first new music since, and captures their 90s slacker rock influences perfectly. Propelled by Ian Shelton’s unmistakeable voice, it captures feelings of helplessness; in its music video the band sit and stand around listlessly while arson, kidnapping and murder goes on around them. It’s their first single of 2024 and as ever, it’s a belter. – Will Marshall
Black Foxxes – I Can’t Be Left Alone With It
The long wait for an Alternative artists triumphant return to the sound waves after several years of near radio silence is finally over, come the beginning rumbles of their independent fan funded mystery project; it has been nearly 4 years since the Devonshire Indie Rockers Black Foxxes, graced the scene with their exquisitely layered self-titled third studio album, and since the wrap up of that era fans were left on tender hooks, thirsting for more of their vulnerable offerings. Thankfully, this latest single ‘I Can’t Be Left Alone With It’, assumed to be the first of many singles produced as part of their upcoming fourth studio album – The Haar, paints a beautiful yet harrowing picture of depressive spiralling with its stripped back piano lead ominously ambient aesthetic, accompanied by Mark Holley’s sullenly retrained vocals delivery which creates a truly powerful saddening note that is almost impossible to ignore. If this is an indication of Black Foxxes direction as far as musical prowess is concerned, we’ll be positively transfixed to their socials, ready and waiting to consume all they have to offer. – Bennie Osborne
Hour Of Reprisal – Chain of Suffering
Following the success of last year’s A New World From the Ashes of the Old and this year’s split with Lethal Minds, Norwich straight-edge crew Hour of Reprisal have dropped the first single off an upcoming EP in ‘Chain of Suffering’. Opened by rumbling bass and vicious barks, it opens into a chugging, IQ-lowering riff and thunderous double bass drumming. As with all great hardcore, it’s over in a flash, pulverising in a hair over two minutes before leaving the wreckage behind. – Will Marshall
Giant Walker – Silhouettes
Up-and-coming prog metallers Giant Walker have shared the title track from their new album Silhouettes, out 20th September on Church Road Records. Its opener puts the focus squarely on Steff Fish’s powerful voice, accompanied by a lone acoustic guitar in a melancholic intro. Building into a towering, riffy bridge it’s a powerful display of the band’s talent of crafting hooky, enthralling songs. Fish explains of ‘Silhouettes’, “Thematically, the song explores feelings of being constantly beaten down to the point where you want to bring everyone down with you – almost like life is out to trip you up at every corner and then smiling when you fall. Epitomised by the lyric – ‘I could dig a nice hole in the ground, but then I guess I can’t watch the world drown'”. – Will Marshall
Nile – To Strike With Secret Fang
Is there a limit for how many albums you can produce about ancient Egypt and keep producing gold? The answer seems to be at least 11, since Nile are back at it again with their heady brand of highly technical brutal death metal. The new track, “To Strike With Secret Fang” sees them in fine form as they grind, palm mute, and atonally riff their way through two minutes of mythological death metal violence. There isn’t a lot of new ground uncovered here, but that’s not a problem, Nile do Nile, and that’s absolutely fine, the song actually leaves you wanting more as it’s so uncharacteristically short. – Rob Bown
Mothica – Mirage
Manifesting happier days on the horizon with their latest “yeehaw-thica” dark single as part of their newest long play cycle, Mothica, guides fans through a psychological processing point inspired by their own time in therapy, with their latest single from their fast approaching upcoming 3rd studio album Kissing Death. Detailing struggles with personal emotional permanence, ‘Mirage’ stands as a cathartic ode to fantasy chasing, constantly fighting the duality between radical hopefulness and the anxiety arousing depressing reality living beneath. As part of a collective visual-scape placing Death as a toxic rom-com lover, this latest addition to Mothica’s sonic/cinematic universe is quite the intriguing descent into madness. – Bennie Osborne
Take the Crown – The Fight
Gathering momentum like a rampant moose heading towards your car in the dead of night, Ontario’s throwback metalcore/hardcore crew Take the Crown are getting better and better with each track. The third standalone single from the band, ‘The Fight’, does what it says on the tin. A slow burning, stalking riff combined with more of those gargling glass vocals makes for an undeniable slab of authentic ‘core. There’s parts you can nod your head to and parts you’ll scrunch your face up like you’ve just eaten an entire barrel of toxic wastes to. What more do you want? With rumours that the band are recording an EP and some promising live shows under their belt, it’s time to Take the Crown with both hands. – Chris Earl
Vomit Forth – Rotting Wool
‘Rotting Wool’ is one of the most weirdly uncomfortable and unsettling track names of recent times. The new single from Vomit Forth, one of the best new death metal/hardcore hybrids around, is a scathing and sinister slab of crunching, pit inducing extreme music. Short and disgustingly sweet (clocking in at just shy of two minutes and twenty seconds), it grinds and blasts its way, stopping only for some gnarly stomps and a pick-scraping breakdown reminiscent of Forever-era Code Orange. As the bellowing chorus of “Rotting Wool” is belted out like a deranged preacher, you’ll end up singing along but you’ll feel a little dirty, just in time for the blistering maelstrom at the end to forcibly wash you clean. In the words of Mrs Flick from The Simpsons, “filthy, but genuinely arousing”. – Chris Earl
Pale Waves – Glasgow
Vibe checking us, with their latest sonic throwback instalment to their ever impressive expansion to their captivating voice of a crumbling generation, Pale Waves, divulge the complexities of a relationship on the rocks with their Smitten era ghosting banger ‘Glasgow’. Having kicked off their latest album cycle with professing the excitement surrounding the introduction of a new love on ‘Perfume’, ‘Glasgow’ sticks out as a stirring conclusion to a romantic flame, from the experience of overwhelming sadness come an undisclosed eureka moment, which sent the narrator packing up and running as fast as they can away from the Scotland. Sonically speaking Pale Waves latest 90’s inspired Electro-Synth-Rock offerings feel like we’re returning to a combination aesthetic of their previous beloved work, almost like a marriage of their previous albums My Mind Make Noises and Who Am I? If the aesthetic continues with this trajectory with eventual future singles before the albums eventual due date in late September, you can happily call us hooked. – Bennie Osborne
Nails – Give Me the Painkiller
It’s a Nails song. It’ll make your teeth melt and your eyeballs shake out of your skull, what more do you want? After making one of the most eagerly awaited comebacks in modern times (though if they were actually gone or not is up for debate), they’ve come out swinging and with ‘Give Me The Painkiller’ their second single from upcoming album Every Bridge Burning they’re making those swings count. You can probably guess what it, or most of the other tracks on the forthcoming album, a whole lot of gritty, almost disgusting H800 worship with production that makes it sound like a tornado of rusty razorblades is engulfing you. The frantic Slayer-esque guitar solo near the end only adds to the chaos, and helps to give you that warm, fuzzy feeling that only Nails can. – Chris Earl
Imminence – Death By A Thousand Cuts (Feat. Lucas Woodland)
Seeking some sonic ascension with the newly reworked single originally off of their latest studio album; the Trelleborg metalcore quintet Imminence, seek some divine intervention from across the North Sea as they join ranks with Holding Absence’s Lucas Woodland, for a descent into desperation come struggles surrounding the meaning and purpose of one’s life, accompanied by a musical arrangement comparable to the impact of an unrelenting cluster of thunderclaps. Fully embracing imprisoned internal chaos vibes, this latest collaboration, originally part of – The Black album, which was released back in April, was originally an overwhelming attack of the senses, all the while providing a space for the thoughts and feelings of the listener to be made safe and validated; now with the inclusion of Woodlands charismatic swing states between ferociousness and innate rawness, the song seems to demand more space for its potent destructive atmosphere to captivate the psyche into submission. – Bennie Osborne
Thotcrime – Garden Court (Feat. bagel rabbit)
Prosthetic Records’ cybergrind darlings Thotcrime continue to collide genre with new single Garden Court, the third taken from upcoming third album Connection Anxiety. With an intro taking as much from Bladee, as it does from cybergrind, with the hi hat patterns to prove it. The drum programming tends to (mostly) stay in the realm of the human, which lets the post hardcore indebted guitar parts shine through, and the inhumane blast beats hit even harder. Hayley Elizabeth’s vocals don’t miss a beat with the genre shifts, focusing on the “inner fight between wanting to prove to yourself that you were right and wanting to shape your own reality despite it not seeming the way you wanted it to be.” With the album coming out on August 16th, the evolution and exploration of the band will surely be going even further. – Mia Thunderska
Oceano – Price of Pain
Back in the days of MySpace, it could be argued that alongside bands such as Job For A Cowboy and Whitechapel, Oceano were at the top of the pile for bludgeoning, knuckle-dragging deathcore. Ahead of their first release in over seven years, the Illinois bree-ers have dropped the third single from it in the form of ‘Price of Pain’. Opening with a delightfully jazzy bass riff, you’re soon pummelled to death by the legendary vocals of Adam Warren, who sounds as menacing as he did near 15 years ago. Through blast beats and slam moments that will knock all of the family photos off your mantle if played through the right speakers, they sound as brutal and as vital to the scene as they did when they first made their mark. If unrelenting, aural assaults are your thing and you’re not eagerly awaiting the end of August when Living Chaos drops, then you need to change that ASAP. – Chris Earl
Lamb of God – Laid to Rest (HEALTH remix)
Perhaps only second to the legendary ‘Redneck’ in terms of notoriety in their catalogue, ‘Laid To Rest’ was a lot of people’s introduction to Lamb Of God‘s brand of groove heavy NWOAHM. Part of the 20th anniversary release of the seminal Ashes Of The Wake, we’re being spoiled with a collaboration with the sad horny folk themselves HEALTH (not the first time the two have joined forces) for a remix. Distorting the instantly recognisable riff and adding some dark, moody beats instead of the drumming, it’s given a haunting, dungeon-esque twist that distorts and twists things till, aside from the vocals, the track is practically unrecognizable. Satisfyingly, the final “see who gives a fuck” part is given an almost dubstep heavy part, meaning you end up with an incredibly brain scratching, unique curio of a track. – Chris Earl
Dead Roots – Shapeshifter
The Greater Toronto Area, has been pumping out nothing but solidly good alternative and heavy music this year. Adding to the list is the wonderful four piece metalcore outfit Dead Roots with their first new single in over a year, “Shapeshifter”. The new single embodies everything that was metalcore 10 years ago and adds modern metalcore flare. Insanely heavy vocals are on display by Alexander Scott who clearly gave it everything they got and more on the recording with screams heard across the great north. Instrumentals similar to Northlane pound from start to finish as well, showing fans that Dead Roots really know how to bring the heat. If this is the first single of something even bigger, the future is looking absolutely exceptional for these four Canadian newcomers. – Nathaniel Maure
Zeal & Ardor – Hide In Shade
Metal sensations Zeal & Ardor return to their black metal meets blues and gospel roots with their thunderous new single ‘Hide In Shade’. Previously a solo effort for frontman Manuel Gagneux, Zeal & Ardor’s recent work has gone for a scattershot approach to genre, incorporating everything from shoegaze to folk and progressive metal, ‘Hide In Shade’ returns to the project’s core concept with stomping call-and-response rhythms leading into ferocious tremolo picked riffs and banshee-like screams. While the experimentation of the other singles released in anticipation of the band’s upcoming fourth album Greif reveal new sides to Zeal & Ardor it’s also great to see that they’ve not lost sight of their original vision. – Bruce
Laura Jane Grace And The Mississippi Medicals – Karma Too Close
Punk rock darling Laura Jane Grace has never been one to rest on her laurels, following up her latest acclaimed solo album Hole In My Head, released only a few months ago, with another single alongside her new backing band The Mississippi Medicals. Much like the project’s last track ‘All Fucked Out’ new single ‘Karma Too Close’ leans more experimental than any of Grace’s previous work, either solo or with Against Me!, employing an electric sitar and lilting, high pitched backing vocals to elevate the track’s otherwise straightforward punk feel. While some of the most famous backing bands ground their eclectic bandleaders The Mississippi Medicals seem to be bringing Grace’s wackier tendencies to the forefront with brilliant results. – Bruce
Bones UK – Fix
Continuing to enthral listeners with their bountiful resilience and individualistic spirit come news of their sophomore studio albums release is incoming; the unapologetically rebellious Camden native/Los Angeles based rock duo BONES UK, deliver the sonic equivalent of the Double Ouroboros concept, while sticking with what they do best, redirecting classic rock soundscapes into an electro-industrial dance pit on their latest single ‘FIX’. With the release of their second LP SOFT, scheduled for the end of Summer, we can’t help but be moved by the stirring attempts to rid their lover of their pain and suffering, all the while harming themselves in time to a sick instrumental, reminding listeners of why their debut album was nominated for a GRAMMY in the Best Rock Performance category. Will they be nominated again for SOFT? We hope so, especially after sampling this gem of a single. – Bennie Osborne
Trash Boat – Be Someone (Feat. I Prevail)
Announcing the release of their fourth studio album with their latest tenacious single, alongside celebrating the ten year anniversary of the bands inception and rise to notoriety in the Post-Hardcore community; the St Albans native melodic hardcore punks Trash Boat, pommel our senses with the riotous tones of their latest single ‘Be Someone’. Never a band to shy away from dominating your mind with the heavy blasts of their aggressively-tinged outpouring, this latest track is the source of great intrigue come a moment of poetic kismet surrounding how fellow collaborator Eric Vanlerberghe of I Prevail came to feature on the track. To put it briefly, on the same tour where Eric agrees to feature on the track, they were also dragged in a drunken punch up in a Dublin bar (FYI: they were not the aggressor), by that point the track was written and ready for them to hit the booth. It doesn’t get anymore rock n roll if you tried! Trash Boat’s upcoming studio album – Heaven Can Wait, is due to be released October 4th 2024. – Bennie Osborne
The Five Hundred – Dragged Out (Feat. Charlie Rolfe)
Progressive metalcore is in rude health of late, and the UK’s The Five Hundred‘s new single ‘Dragged Out’ is their statement of intent to be one of its leaders here. A serpentine lead is underpinned by shifting polyrhythms while the song tackles themes of mental health. Elevating the song further is a feature from As Everything Unfolds‘ Charlie Rolfe, adding to the song’s haunting atmosphere with a raw, emotional performance. The band say of the song, “‘Dragge Out’ delves into the depths of complex mental anguish and despair, capturing the harrowing experience of being trapped in a relentless cycle of inner turmoil and emotional darkness.” – Will Marshall
Exist Immortal – Higher Ground (Feat. Megan Targett)
Plugging away in the UK scene, Exist Immortal have been putting their own djent-flecked spin on progressive metalcore for some time but latest single ‘Higher Ground’ shows they’re poised to step up in a big way. With a deliriously catchy chorus and crunching riffs it’s already a huge track, but the guest feature from Vexed vocalist Megan Targett propels the song even higher. Bringing her unique, rapid-fire scream delivery amidst a furious breakdown, it shows just how good Exist Immortal are not only with their melodies but also when they go heavy. Its final chorus with both vocalists playing off each other is a surefire highlight, and if they pop up on a bill together anywhere, you’d be mad to miss it. – Will Marshall
