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 Mayhem’s latest single “Despair.”
As the cold months descend, the icy blasts of Norwegian black metal feel apropos. And there’s no better source for such disharmony than the pioneers of the genre, Mayhem, who are back this week with the second single from their forthcoming album Liturgy of Death.
The six-minute “Despair” picks up with blast beats (Hellhammer is dialed in here) and the atmospheric wash of rapid riffing, Attila Csihar’s voice barely peaking through the smothered sonic mix. Again, as he did on previous single “Weep for Nothing,” Attila jumps between gnarled growls and more discernible, operatic bellows, as if a demon and god-like entity are in volatile conversation amidst the great calamitous noise. Mayhem steer the song through some slower, doomy riff sections for variation — brief rests before the pummeling re-commences and pandemonium reigns once more.
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Honorable Mentions:
Alter Bridge – “Playing Aces”
“Playing Aces” hits the sweet spot between alt-metal and classic rock that’s patently Alter Bridge, as guitarist Mark Tremonti leads the forceful and driving arrangement while Myles Kennedy exhausts the fullness of his expansive vocal range. With so many projects, one could reasonably expect Tremonti to run out of ideas at some point, but Kennedy’s soaring vocals provide a nice foil, letting Tremonti dig in and stretch out a bit more with Alter Bridge.
Guns N’ Roses – “Nothin’”
Guns N’ Roses released two singles this week, a ballad and a rocker. For our rundown, we’re going with the ballad, “Nothin,’” with its bouncy piano hook, deceptively catchy melody lines from Axl Rose, and a beefy guitar solo from Slash in the middle. It’s believed that these songs are from the batch of Chinese Democracy leftovers that have been the source for the band’s recent singles, and that album had a few similarly commendable David Bowie-esque ballads, a mode that suits latter-era Rose.
NUKEM – “Torture, Murder, Mutilate”
San Diego’s NUKEM recently toured with Death to All — the tribute act featuring former members of Death — and cited the pioneering Chuck Schuldiner-founded act as an inspiration for “Torture, Murder, Mutilate.” The title sounds like it could have been lifted from Screaming Bloody Gore, and the music isn’t too far off either, with its punked-up, thrashy take on old-school death metal.
