Playlist for March 3 – 16, 2025

Quick playlist highlights: This is the first week that I’m using the new playlist format. From now on, instead of making a new playlist each week, I’m going to have one single playlist that is continuously updated. I’ll keep the 100 most recently added songs on the playlist (so if I add 15 one week, that means the oldest 15 will be removed). This means that you won’t be able to go back and listen to a playlist from last year, which is a bummer, but I can’t have 50+ playlists crowding my Spotify anymore. The benefit of this approach is that you can save this playlist to your library and it will always have the newest songs ready to go for you as I update it each week.

– Vildhjarta – “+ sargasso +”
I’m always fascinated by Vildhjarta’s music. It’s so massive. The only other band that compares is Humanity’s Last Breath, and that’s partly due to the fact that Buster Odeholm and Calle Thomer are in both bands (although Calle is technically only a live and studio guitarist in Humanity’s Last Breath). Vildhjarta’s style is iconic, and you can hear Calle’s influence in everything he touches (e.g., Reflections’ recent material that he has contributed to). Their new album comes out on May 29th and I will almost certainly review it. The mystery, hidden lore, and overall intrigue of the band always requires a deep dive.

– Rivers of Nihil – “American Death”
What an interesting track. As soon as I was going to talk about how I appreciate the band’s return to a more traditional death metal sound, the clean chorus came in. You know what, I don’t hate it. Rivers of Nihil has tested progressive elements on recent albums, and that’s what made ‘Where Owls Know My Name’ my favorite album of 2018. I’ve liked the new singles, but I don’t think I’ll fully grasp the big picture until I listen to the album front to back – it comes out on May 30th. Oh wow, I just realized it’s going to compete with Vildhjarta’s new album on the same weekend. What a good problem to have.

– Bury Tomorrow – “Waiting”
This is a solid, aggressive song from Bury Tomorrow. They’re looking to build on the momentum from their 2023 album and solidify Tom Prendergast as their new clean vocalist. Their new album comes out May 16th which is starting to look like a hot month for new music.

– Fallujah – “Kaleidoscopic Waves”
This song gives me hope that Fallujah is returning to greatness. ‘Dreamless’ is such an iconic album, and it was an unbelievable mistake that they followed it up with ‘Undying Light’ in 2019. I know their original vocalist stepped down, but the replacement was absolutely horrible – it’s no wonder Fallujah immediately parted ways with him after one album. The good news is that the newest vocalist did a solid job on ‘Empyrean’ in 2022, and he is sounding even stronger on this single. As some of the YouTube comments point out, this song is reminiscent of the band’s 2014 album, ‘The Flesh Prevails,’ which the band recently remixed and remastered to celebrate its 10th anniversary. That’s where Fallujah really started to gain attention, and it seems like revisiting it last year may have inspired the band to bring some of that sound/style back for their new album.

– Spiritbox – “Tsunami Sea”
This is the title track from Spiritbox’s album that came out last week. I’m still processing my thoughts. Maybe I’ll review it for the next newsletter. I actually don’t know why I decided to feature this song – it is the exact type of Spiritbox song that I don’t like. At least it picks up towards the end.

– Thus Spoke Zarathustra – “I Can’t Save You”
Now this is what I’m talking about. A quick, succinct return to proper metalcore with a feature from Boundaries. I’m such a fan of revival metalcore when it’s done right, and the feature at the end literally sounds like it’s straight off a Boundaries track. They had my number one album last year so involving their vocalist in anything is going to score a lot of points from me.

– Whitechapel – “Mammoth God”
Oh wait, sorry Spiritbox, I probably need to review the new Whitechapel album first. I went through Whitechapel’s whole discography twice last week because the band’s trajectory is so interesting. So yeah, I didn’t do a whole refresher on them for nothing, they will be the next review. Lots to say, most of it is very positive.

– Imminence – The Call of the Void”
Imminence just released the deluxe edition of their 2024 album, ‘The Black.’ This song features Joel Holmquist, who has been killing it in the recent Aviana singles, and he brings a lot of heaviness to this track. Honestly, this is the kind of Imminence song that I like. The violin stuff isn’t overdone, and they keep things fast and aggressive.

– Disembodied Tyrant – “8.6 Blackout”
You have to see the music video that accompanies this song. Unbelievably powerful. The synchronization of the clips with everything going on musically is pure art. I would embed it here, but it’s age restricted and can only be watched on YouTube. At this point, you have no excuse for not knowing about this band. The two EPs they put out last year are top-tier deathcore, and I might even consider them the most exciting young deathcore band in the current scene. This track still has symphonic elements, but it also feels more extreme (maybe similar in some ways to To The Grave?).

– Sleep Token – “Emergence”
Obligatory inclusion of Sleep Token because the scene hypes them up for reasons I don’t understand. Not metal. Nothing else to say.

– Prompts – “Stranger”
This is one of my favorite Asian metalcore bands. Their 2022 album was excellent, and while this just seems to be a single (and not part of a larger album release), I’m excited for their future. Featuring Landon Tewers (vocalist of The Plot In You) is also such a power move. God, I love hearing him be heavy. The new Plot stuff is good, but I’m not gonna lie, I was a little disappointed when I saw them recently because the only truly heavy song they played was “Crows.”

– Wolves At The Gate – “Parasite”
These guys fell off my radar for a while, I think because they were going more alt-rock(?), but this single is super solid.

– Crown Magnetar – “Barbed Wire Noose”
Their new EP dropped last week. I still need to give it a proper listen. Probably was a bad move to drop it the same day as Whitechapel’s album. What I’ve heard has been good though.

– The Unguided – “I.D.K.F.A.”
This is basically the real version of Sonic Syndicate since it’s composed of the most important original members and other former members. I’m a big fan of uplifting, melodic death metal, and this album earned several plays this week.