As a music fan with a particular fondness for anything that bangs, screams, and shreds, I developed a new hobby hunting for top lists on websites and online music magazines and checking out new stuff on YouTube or Spotify.
Last month, I stumbled on Loudwire’s February 2022 list of the best rock and Metal songs. Among their top entries, there were three songs I had never heard before that really caught my ear. Check them out!
Abbath, Dread Reaver
Nasty riffs abound on Abbath Doom Occulta’s third album, simply called Dread Reaver. But Dread Reaver deserves a special place in hell. If you like Immortal, Darkthrone, and all that black Metal stuff, then you might like this sweet little ditty, too. The entire album was mixed by Abbath himself, which made me curious to give the rest of the Dread Reaver album a listen. I found quite a few negative reviews online that completely trashed the album. The review articles were clearly written by discerning fans, but to the less trained ear, this album contains a few gems like Myrmidon and, of course, the title song and quite a few savage Metal moments.
Animals As Leaders, Gordian Naught
Gordian Naught appears on Animals as Leaders’ freshly released album Parrhesia and is really something else. The Metal song opens with an eerie middle eastern guitar intro that quickly gets whipped up with fast drums and a second guitar riff and then alternates between frenetic industrial Metal and dark pounding and almost theatrical passages. The link to the myth of the Gordian Knot quickly becomes evident. The music really brings alive the metaphor of untying an extremely tangled and complicated knot. It stands for unsolvable issues, which is how guitarist Tosin Abasi perceives society today. Check it out if you’re into Industrial Metal. Very tight stuff.
Circa Survive, Curitiba
Circa Survive’s Curitiba, from their latest EP, A Dream About Death, doesn’t qualify as rock or Metal, in my opinion. Its polished production and poppy sound effects categorize it more as emo, but definitely with a vibe that could please the Metal crowd to wind down after a heavy night out. It’s a heavily synth-based ballad with powerful drums. I dug a little deeper. This EP is following up on their previous EP, A Dream About Love, but you can clearly hear with the new material that the band has matured. The rest of the album is definitely worth a listen with songs like Discounts On Psychic Readings and the interesting Buzzhenge.
There you go. Three songs that made the top of last month’s list and will keep you headbanging for the next 15 minutes. There’s more good stuff on Loudwire’s list, like the latest by Korn, Jack White, and Arch Enemy, so do check it out. Already looking forward to next month’s round of loud noise on Spotify. Until Then…
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Best Rock and Metal Songs first appeared on
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