Weekly Update #46 – July 6, 2025
Playlist of New Songs
Quick playlist highlights: The playlist has 157 new songs. I put a lot of my favorites at the front, but this is a great summary of the last two months of music. I add new songs to the playlist each weekend (even though I’m not doing weekly newsletters right now) – feel free to follow it if you want to see the updates each week since I won’t be posting it on the website as often.
– Dance Gavin Dance – “All The Way Down”
I hated this song when I first heard it. It’s grown on me a lot. Kind of a weird song to start the playlist with, but I had to get that off my chest. Honestly, getting a little weird might be the best way to cut ties with the Tilian era and start fresh with Andrew Wells.
– Parkway Drive – “Sacred”
Might be their best song in the last 10 years. Still a 4/10. No, the breakdown does not mean we are back. Oldest marketing trick in the book.
– Lorna Shore – “Unbreakable”
I love the triumphant feel of this one. The melodic parts give the song a lot of staying power. It’s nice to understand some of Will’s vocals for once instead of constant tryhard mode like he’s in the deathcore Olympics. They need to get back to the balance they had on ‘Immortal.’ It’s kind of like Shadow of Intent with ‘Reclaimer’ vs ‘Delirium Imperium,’ there’s just so much going on, and some people might like the constant barrage of sounds, but a lot of it blurs together and the non-singles are almost immediately forgotten.
– Adept – “Heaven”
This is my favorite news in the whole newsletter. Adept is back after nine years of silence. Listen to their 2009 album ‘Another Year of Disaster.’ Nobody else has ever done it like that. If we get a new album, it will guaranteed be top 15 for me.
– Johnny Booth – “Get Well Soon”
These guys put out my number one album in 2023. This song is on that same level. I’m seeing them in a month and it’s going to be a time.
– The Word Alive – “Eyes Above”
Is The Word Alive finally circling back around to being heavy again? Their 2023 album was actually decent, and this is a step above that. I mean look, it sucks that almost every metalcore band that was big in 2012 decided to go soft and then realized they’re actually supposed to make heavy music (Memphis May Fire, The Amity Affliction, Of Mice & Men, We Came As Romans, Crown The Empire, and countless others), but at least they’re getting back on track.
– Aversions Crown – “A Voice From The Outer Dark”
My second favorite news is that Aversions Crown is back with a new vocalist, Alex Teyan from Black Tongue. His performance on ‘Nadir’ in 2018 was unbelievable and made him one of my favorite deathcore vocalists. Black Tongue still isn’t working on any new music (the other members are probably busy with Infant Annihilator), so this is the next best thing. His vocals kind of sound like Cannibal Corpse at certain points.
– Vildhjarta – “+ ? regnet, the? +”
I’m not gonna lie, I’m still waiting for the new Vildhjarta album to click for me. Individually, the songs are beautiful and powerful, but the constant lurching and cliffhangers for an entire album is…a lot. It’s more avant-garde than progressive metal now.
– blessthefall – “mallxcore”
After seven years, blessthefall is getting ready to release a new album in September. This track is super fun, and the music video is hilarious. Actually, I’ll just put it at the bottom so you can watch it. They poke fun at themselves and the metalcore industry with surprising accuracy (e.g. “man, your first album was pretty good…kind of fell off after that,” pointing out that their shirts used to be in Hot Topic but aren’t anymore, and referencing butt rock and Octanecore). This could be a front runner for the fun, lighthearted metalcore album that always seems to make it into my top 10. It will be their best album in the last 12 years for sure.
– I Prevail – “Violent Nature”
I Prevail parted ways with their clean singer. In the aftermath, it seems like it might not have been as amicable as they originally said. They proceeded to release a super heavy track and a soft track that had their screamer doing the cleans. It looks like they’re going to be just fine.
– Thus Spoke Zarathustra – “Santosha”
This is a dark horse contender. I bet you’ll see them pop up on some end of the year lists. They won’t be number one, but for such an unknown band, they made a big splash with this album. It’s a type of deathcore that people don’t really make anymore. Think early As Blood Runs Black and even Upon A Burning Body.
– King 810 – “Rustbelt Numetal”
Their new EP is crazy. I haven’t paid much attention to them since their debut album in 2014 because they seemed to get more experimental and less metal focused, but this EP is right down my alley.
– Fallujah – “Labyrinth of Stone”
The new album is exactly what I was hoping for. A return to form from the tech-metal masters.
– Kingdom of Giants – “Collide”
They took a long time between after their 2020 album to only put out an EP in 2024 so I’m not too surprised that they still have more in the tank. Good, they need to capitalize on their momentum, especially after pioneering a sound that other bands have been trying to copy for the last five years.
– Rivers of Nihil – “Water & Time”
I’m still forming my opinion on the new album. It’s definitely better than ‘The Work’ (which I’m just realizing that I never posted my review of…), but it doesn’t compete with ‘Where Owls Know My Name.’ This track has the best use of clean vocals. Overall, the new vocalist does better than I expected, especially on the screams, but I miss being able to easily understand the screams.
– Shields – “Abuser”
What a ripper. 1:15 of hate.
– Mortal Reminder – “War of Love”
Super solid. I’m really surprised that these guys are hovering around 10,000 monthly listeners when bands like Thrown are so big. This is the exact same thing.
– Malevolence – “Trenches”
I liked their recent album a lot. Straight metal that’s easy to listen to.
– Heaven Shall Burn – “Confounder”
HSB just put out a great album as well. It has some grittier moments that remind me of their earlier work. They are a fundamentally political band and have enjoyed the recent era dominated by progressive politics, but their own country is changing its views, which can clearly be seen in the rise of Germany’s AfD political party. It will be interesting to see if the shifts have any effect on HSB’s popularity.
– My Ticket Home – “Tearjoint”
Pretty good for their first song in seven years. I know everyone loves their ‘Strangers Only’ album, but I like their first two releases the most. Will be keeping watch to see where they go from here.
– Signs of the Swarm – “Hell Must Fear Me”
New album coming out in a few weeks. They have such distinct vocals. One of my favorite modern deathcore bands.
– Born of Osiris – “Through Shadows”
BOO also has a new album due in a couple days. I always end up enjoying them more than I expect. They’re so basic compared to how they used to sound, but they have a good formula and make for easy listening.
– Falling In Reverse – “God Is A Weapon”
I swear, Ronnie Radke decided to feature Marilyn Manson just to piss people off. The music video has racked up 11 million views in six weeks. I think more than anything, Falling In Reverse shows how small the vocal minority really is. Despite the protests on Twitter, he continues to find more success.
– Loathe – “Gifted Every Strength”
Loathe is going to have a hard time living up to their last album. I actually couldn’t stand the Deftones vocals and shoegaze style so I don’t have a horse in the race, but I’m curious to see what they try next. I like that they started the song off with a bang; the screams kind of sound like Vein at certain points. But the fact that there’s more than two minutes of nonsense at the end is not a good sign. I can tell you right now, if they have that “artistic” filler throughout the album, I won’t be able to give it more than a 5/10. ‘The Cold Sun’ from 2018 is still insane though. If you want more of that sound, check out In Fear – their 2023 album was super good.
– The Amity Affliction – “All That I Remember”
This is the first song without founding member and clean vocalist Ahren Stringer. He’s been replaced by Jonny Reeves (clean vocalist of Kingdom of Giants). The song is good, but I hope Jonny’s involvement doesn’t impact Kingdom of Giants. They have a bright future and The Amity Affliction is way past their prime.