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 the new single “The Veins of Time” from the Night Eternal.
Off the jump, let me cite some brilliant songs that from bands who recently earned the top spot on Heavy Song of the Week with previous singles. First is Sleep’s “The Morrisist,” a song that leans heavy on Vol. 1 vibes for a change and feels properly Sabbathian. Next is Devil Master’s “Death Anthem,” the nastiest song off their upcoming record Bloody Dreams and another sign that this upcoming record is their sleaziest, most evil, most gothic, and best one yet. So, consider this a broader cosign of those projects in their totality in order to make room for highlighting other exceptional releases, of which we never seem to have a shortage.
The Night Eternal ride the line between heavy metal and the more hard rocking end of AOR, similar to current bands like Final Gasp and Spell, who each released excellent records this year. The song is simple and doesn’t stray far from the formula, relying on a night-time atmosphere that practically cries out with cold blue lights, leather jackets, and the kind of rough rebellious spirit of traditional heavy metal.
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The focus on big hooks and arena power can so often deflate heavy bands, but the background of these players in the German thrash and black metal scene offer them a strong grounding in knowing the atmosphere things need to still cling to. It’s ultimately the same alchemical mixture that makes bands like Sumerlands and Night Flight Orchestra so successful at what they do. This is a rarefied form of the ’80s Judas Priest-AOR hybrid we idolize but only rarely historically ever received. It’s our Heavy Song of the Week.
Honorable Mentions
Ch’ahom – “Cult of Xaman”
It’s rare to find a band that so seamlessly combines the forcefulness of black and death metal with the more elaborate flourish of Yes bound along their shared mystical edge. Ch’ahom this time around also add an almost Voivodian or Morbid Angel-driven sense of the bizarre and otherworldly, fitting the cosmic horror theme underpinning the upcoming concept album this is pulled from. It is imaginative and catchy, heavy but still hooky, able to blend raw production with an airy enough mix that nothing feels cloudy or obscured out of amateurism. It’s deeply progressive in structure despite only just passing the four-minute mark, featuring an emotionally logical sequence of riffs that underscores the power of this wind of heavy music.
Iapetus – “Red Giant” feat. Fabienne Erni
So much melodic metal sacrifices intensity to incorporate it or, worse, simply cuts between hackneyed heavy sections and corny melodicism in a clear formulaic stab. “Red Giant” feels achingly sincere, containing exactly as much ambition as an 11-minute long song would signify. Every turn to more melodic leads is underpinned by ferocious drumming and blast beats, every heavy section has some kind of anthemic hook waiting in the wings that you only realize when it gets nudged up in the mix. The song is long, yes, but in the way old Iron Maiden epics were, where each riff is imagined as the intro riff before the chorus, with this ever-expanding sense of motion. It’s a perpetual eruption.
Stick Men – “Komodo”
King Crimson’s greatest gift to the world of heavy music was a sea of inspiration, approaches to melody, harmony, rhythm, and tone that still ripple through alternative, punk, prog, and metal music. Stick Men, one of many inheritors to King Crimson’s lineage and featuring former Crim members Pat Mastelloto on drums and Tony Levin on Chapman stick alongside Markus Reuter on Warr guitar, delivers with “Komodo” a track that feels cut from the same cloth as famously impossible guitar marathon “Fracture,” featuring a similar feral arpeggiated line. Forget prog; the atmosphere here is menacing and strange, the moody almost a Sabbathian dirge, with these wild guitar freakouts that refuse to become indisciplined even in their menace. It’s brilliant and underscores why this legacy has been so long lasting.
