Heavy Track of the Week is a characteristic on Heavy Consequence breaking down the highest steel, punk, and exhausting rock tracks it’s essential to hear each Friday. This week, No. 1 goes to Burning Witches’ one-off single “The Spell of the Cranium.”
Every week like this makes us grateful for heavy steel. The catharsis of brutal, tactile sounds; the escape of fantastical, otherworldly lyrics and theatrical vocals. This performance is among the defining traits of steel. And boy, was it a essential distraction from the turmoil of the surface world.
Swiss act Burning Witches are a kind of larger-than-life energy steel bands whose music is of pure, transportive pleasure. Anthemic vocals, fist-raising riffs, and a basic ’80s-style solo that sends a chill up the backbone — the band’s newest single, “The Spell of the Cranium,” has all of it. And for 5 minutes, the exterior noise and negativity subsides. Lengthy reside the timeless heavy steel of this pressure, and up the horns!
“The Spell of the Cranium” might be accessible in bodily format on December tenth as a part of a 12-inch vinyl maxi-single with the B-side “Mirror, Mirror.”
Honorable Mentions:
Delain – “The Reaping”
Many US bands had been expectedly quiet this week, although the European heavy steel contingent pressed on with its album bulletins and deliberate releases. Dutch symphonic metallers Delain had been among the many latter, providing up the melodic banger “The Reaping.” Diana Leah’s pristine vocals shimmer towards a backdrop of slam riffs and thick synth stabs, recalling the alt-metal of Evanescence and industrialists HEALTH once they’re at their most steel.
Dieth – Animal Me
The newest single from veteran bassist David Ellefson’s band Dieth, “Animal Me,” falls someplace between Chaos A.D.-era Sepultura and Ellefson’s earlier thrash-metal endeavors: a three-minute barrage of groove steel riffs, unfiltered via clear, unadorned manufacturing. Of Ellefon’s post-Megadeth initiatives, Dieth are simply essentially the most excessive and vitriolic — they sound offended — which could be seen as each a response to his falling out with Dave Mustaine and a problem to his former band to match the aggression on show right here.
Malevolence – “Trenches”
Completely brutal stuff from UK act Malevolence. Just like the beatdown hardcore of Kublai Khan TX and the breakdowns in a Knocked Free set, the aptly named “Trenches” is certain to lead to some bruises and damaged bones when the moshes begin churning. Malevolence’s steel underpinnings go a good distance in differentiating their sound from the aforementioned bands, although they’re all reduce from the identical HXC fabric. Somebody get them on a tour collectively — and ensure there’s an EMT on website.