Heavy Song of the Week is a feature on Heavy Consequence breaking down the top metal, punk, and hard rock tracks you need to hear every Friday. This week, we highlight the new single “You Bastard” from Monolord.
Monolord, Swedish titans of doom, released “You Bastard” this week, a hefty and quite melodic piece of doom metal from their upcoming album, Neverending, out May 29th via Relapse Records.
The thing that makes this song so great is not just the riff but the mix, keeping a ton of punch in the bass and guitars while still smothering everything in that smoky fuzzed-out haze we doomheads crave. Too many bands lean so far into the fuzz that their riffs lose that necessary Sabbathian heft. Not here; these punch hard with those beautiful vocals above.
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There’s also a great sense of attitude to the track. It sits partway between a Motorhead rebelliousness and the more dreamquest aspects of doom metal, a balance that is magical.
Honorable Mentions:
Spell – “Take My Life”
’70s heavy metal and hard rock replete with occult grandeur. This is the stuff heavy metal is made of: images of the devil on the wall, driving riffs and the sting of incense smoke in the eyes. Spell sit between Tribulation and Ghost, producing some of the finest gothic-tinged heavy metal around.
VoidChaser – “Anything For Love”
Spanning the gamut from grinding Gojira style heavy riffs, snarled and baroque Dream Theater keyboard leads and a wide open and melodic chorus, this song shows the breadth of what progressive metal is capable. VoidChaser showcase above all, however, a keen sense of songcraft; just try not to sing along. I dare you.
Trelldom – “Folding the Mind”
Gaahl, former vocalist of black metal band Gorgoroth, has spent his years since leaving that group making exceptionally exciting progressive black metal between his two groups WYRD and Trelldom. Here we get something sketching the avant-garde edges of black metal, like Mayhem’s chronically underrated Declaration of War. It’s abstract, evil and mind-expanding, just the way great metal should be.
