Welcome to Metal Lair’s Seven Deadly Songs weekly feature where we curate music from the past and the present for your listening pleasure
Exist Immortal – By Design
Get ready to have your mind blown! Coming in at number one this week is By Design, the explosive new single from UK-based progressive metal titans Exist Immortal (EXIM). This high-octane track is the band’s final standalone before they craft their next EP.
By Design is a heavy metal juggernaut that showcases everything fans love about EXIM: soaring vocal melodies, infectious hooks, and a stunning display of dual lead guitars that’ll leave you breathless. It’s the sound of a band at the peak of their powers, a definitive statement of their relentless evolution, and a track that will have you hitting repeat.
Exist Immortal have proven they belong among the best in the genre and they’re just getting started. With By Design, they’ve refined their sound to near perfection, blending bone-crushing riffs with breathtaking clean sections in a way only they can.
The band themselves say it best: “By Design is everything we’ve worked on this year distilled into one track.
Catch them live on December 7th in Brighton for their final show of the year, and get ready for more new music and tours in 2025. Don’t miss out.
Cemican – Kukulkan Wakah Chan
The Guadalajara-based Aztec folk metal group Cemican return with their first new music in 4 years dedicated completely to the Mayan culture. This is the first treat from the band’s next album, which they continue to record through December, and is expected out summer 2025.The music of Cemican whose name means “the duality of life and death” in the Aztecan language of Nahuatl (spoken by 2 million people in Central Mexico) – incorporates elements of the legends, mysticism and ideologies of ancient Mexican culture. They combine indigenous instrumentation with Headbanger’s Ball-worthy riffage.
Pathogenic – Mass Grave Memory
Boston’s PATHOGENIC makes their triumphant return with the release of Mass Grave Memory off the album Crowned in Corpses. It’s a brutal and immersive display of progressive tech death. This marks their first full-length release in over half a decade, promising a bold evolution of their signature brand of progressive tech death, while retaining the intensity that has defined the band for years.
Space Of Variations – Lies
Ukrainian metalcore unit Space Of Variations reveals a brand-new song and digital single “LIES”, an emotionally driven track that starts out calm with a beautifully arranged verse that smoothly transitions into a melancholic chorus. The intensity rises to another level when vocalist Dmytro Kozhukhar switches from soothing clean vocals to aggressive shouts.
Bedsore – Dreaming The Strife For Love
Bedsore’s Dreaming The Strife For Love blends 1970s-inspired progressive rock with their death metal roots, creating a lush, atmospheric sound that’s both operatic and haunting. Drawing on themes of love as a battlefield, the album mixes intricate instrumentation—12-string guitar, synthesizers, mellotron, and horns—with dark, blackened riffs and anguished vocals. This fusion of old-school prog and modern death metal results in a unique, immersive experience that is both ambitious and surreal.
Ryujin – Titled Track Ryujin
RYUJIN’s track “Ryujin” defies easy classification. While often labeled as melodic death metal, this description barely scratches the surface. The band fuses elements of power metal, thrash, classical, and Japanese influences, crafting a dynamic sound that’s both diverse and cohesive. The real strength of the song lies in how effortlessly RYUJIN blends these styles, delivering them with a ferocity and precision that makes the music hit hard and heavy. It’s a masterful blend of cultures and subgenres, executed flawlessly.
Demande A La Poussiere – Ichinawa
DEMANDE À LA POUSSIÈRE’s new album Kintsugi has earned widespread praise, and the band continues to captivate with their latest release, the video for “Ichinawa,” directed by Gildas Debaussart and featuring a striking dance performance by Misty Orchid. The Parisian group blends Black Metal, Doom, and Sludge to craft a dark, atmospheric track filled with anguished vocals and crushing riffs. Drawing influences from bands like Neurosis, Mayhem, Cult of Luna, and Akhlys, Ichinawa showcases the band’s ability to evoke a haunting, visceral soundscape that pushes the boundaries of heavy music.
