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 Puscifer’s “Self Evident.”
Puscifer are set to return with their first album in more than five years, announcing a February 6th release for their upcoming LP, Normal Isn’t. Maynard James Keenan and company unleashed the first single, “Self Evident,” and it’s an absolutely hypnotic song. Over a driving rhythm section, Keenan and Carina Round engage in call-and-response vocals that are instantly captivating.
Lyrically, Puscifer’s longstanding dark sense of humor shines through, with lines like, “You’re an idiot/ You embody every bit of it/ Even set a new precedent/ Empirical/ Concrete evidence/ Minimal due diligence/ We’ve concluded what is obvious/ You’re a bunghole.” Not too many bands can pull off a song with the word “bunghole” in it, but then again, not too many bands are anything like the wholly unique Puscifer.
Honorable Mentions:
Angel Du$t – “Cold 2 the Touch”
Angel Du$t announced their new album Cold 2 the Touch this week, dropping the bite-sized title track in the process. To the pace of galloping Motörhead drums, the band dish out a balance of aggression and melody as frontman Justice Tripp projects all the braggadocio that comes with putting a $ in your band name. In one of the more eye-catching pull quotes we’ve encountered this year, Tripp’s confidence was palpable in regards to the band’s new material: “This is who I am, and I speak for the band too: These are people who are always going to be playing aggressive rock and roll. It’s happening whether you like it or not. I’m me, and if you get in my way I’m gonna crush you.”
Bad Omens – “Dying to Love”
Another Bad Omens single, and another example of the band stretching its sonic boundaries further. The massive guitars on “Dying to Love” sound like something Failure would lay down. And there’s a bit of harsh vocals and extreme metal, too, for fans who were worried that the band had completely ditched that aspect of their sound with the mellow vibes of the previous single.
HEALTH – “THOUGHT LEADER”
As we iterated in our HSOTW feature on their previous single, HEALTH have gone full evil mode for their latest album. Highly dystopian lyrics on current events and topics, paired with the harshest and noisiest electro-industrial soundscapes of their career. “THOUGHT LEADER” continues the trend.