Welcome to Seven Deadly Songs, Metal Lair’s weekly feature, in which we offer up seven succulent slices of hellishly good heavy music for the delectation of the discerning metalhead. This week, we’re looking at songs from new albums and EPs released between the fifth and the eleventh of May. We hope you enjoy them as much as we have enjoyed compiling them.
Abysmal Rites – The Secret of Pure Grief
This might actually be a case of false advertising, as this is far from abysmal. The Secret of Pure Grief is in fact a delightfully sludgy slab of doom metal, taken from the Finnish band’s second album, Restoring the Primordial Order, released on May 9th via the WormHoleDeath label. It even goes a little bit groovy towards the end, which was unexpected, but always it is heavy and uncompromising, and often drenched in feedback. According to their YouTube channel, their: “…primitive and brutal heavy/sludge approach is made only with bass, drums and vocals.” They’re all about the bass, and no treble, though I’m still not sure Meghan Trainor would approve.
Bangover – Thrashonal Rail
I spent longer than I’d care to admit chuckling over this title! This fast and frenetic tribute to the UK’s rail network is a lot of fun, as is the video. And there’s more of the same to look forward to from the London-based thrashers on their independently-released sophomore album, Hibernation Devastation, available from May 9th. It also includes a song called The Texas Chainsaw Thrashacre, and the splendidly-titled Death Shed! They are a welcome addition to the burgeoning scene in the UK and Ireland of comedy-based extreme metal, alongside viral YouTube sensations Raised by Owls and the legendary Gama Bomb.
Demeted – Naiad
We turn now to metalcore – words that are ordinarily enough to make me immediately lose interest, but let’s not be so hasty here. This is towards the heavier end of that most vilified of subgenres from Poland’s Demeted, and it’s well worth a bit of patience. It has all the typical metalcore traits, but the heavier parts are heavy indeed, and the melodic parts are much less sugary and chart-friendly than some of the worst offenders, and the breakdown is a fine example thereof. Naiad is taken from their forthcoming EP, entitled Rituals, due to be released via Seek & Strike on May 9th, and we thoroughly recommend it.
King Parrot – Get What Ya Given
King Parrot, Australia’s grand gentlemen of grindcore, have unleashed 1 minute and 58 seconds of brutal and belligerent brilliance in the form of Get What Ya Given, ahead of the release of their fourth studio album, A Young Person’s Guide To… on Housecore Records on May 6th. To quote the label on their YouTube channel, partly because they put it best, but mainly because I’m lazy: “King Parrot have scraped their latest single and video from the cutting room floor… This… shows the band at their most raw and vicious. Delving deeply into grind-core and power-violence influences all while delivering it with the trademark King Parrot approach.”
Yeah. What they said.
Persekutor – Vlad But True
We have covered a number of blackened heavy metal bands here at Metal Lair recently, and Romania’s Presekutor are a fine addition to the list. Vlad But True is not an Eastern European spin on a Metallica classic as you might assume, but is in fact the title track from their latest EP, due to be released independently on May 9th. The riffs and solo would grace any album by WASP or any of their hard rocking contemporaries in the 1980s, and are juxtaposed nicely by the extreme metal vocals of the gloriously-named Vlad the Inhaler! I appreciate the amusing twist on the name of one of the most prominent figures in Romanian history. They also have a guitar player called Inverted Chris, and that alone is enough to make me love them!
Statement – The World is Fading
Danish heavy metal band Statement release their fifth studio album, Sinister Thing, via Mighty Music on May 9th, and The World is Fading is an emphatic statement regarding the album’s quality. The verse riff in particular is one of those riffs, like Pantera’s Walk or Metallica’s Sad But True, which is guaranteed to cause an outbreak of headbanging. Not banging your head is simply not an option. The chorus is bold and melodic, the guitar solo would not be out of place among Kirk Hammett’s finest on the Black album and Jannick Brochdorf’s raspy vocals are reminiscent of Udo Dirkschneider at his ballsiest (to the wallsiest!)
Stone Fist – Nightmare Blues
I’m including this for the gloriously sludgy bass intro alone! This is taken from the Italian stoner/heavy rock band’s self-titled EP, released on May 9th via Go Down Records. The Venice-based trio look clean cut but the sound is dirty, groovy, bluesy and ballsy. There’s more than a hint of both Kyuss and Melvins about it, which is no bad thing in my book. The band, who have only been around since 2022, resemble the late, great Chester Bennington fronting Irish punk trio Therapy? Frontman Christian Spolaore’s fuzzy guitar tone on Nightmare Blues is actually the stuff of dreams, and we can undoubtedly expect great things from this young band in the future.
