Heavy Song of the Week: Fake Names Show Power Pop Mastery on “Until It’s Normal”

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 album track “Barbarians Blood” from Mastodon. Prior to this week, I had never heard of Fake Names. Since “Until It’s Normal” dropped, I’ve mainlined their first two records and spun this track maybe a dozen times. The history of the group is already insane, with alternative rock, post-punk, post-hardcore, and hardcore groups like Minor Threat, Embrace, Refused, Bad Religion, Girls Against Boys, and Rocket from the Crypt all on the résumé, a genuinely jaw-dropping series of legendary bands. That “Until It’s Normal” eschews much of that history is a cosign of the fact that these players are lifers, that their wide musical palette emerges because of an even wider love of music. There is glam rock strut here, power pop choruses befitting a lost Big Star record, but also Motown harmonies and vocal melodies that call to mind the Pipettes and Phil Spector’s brilliance. It’s not a surprise that a bunch of punk veterans would have an ear for this kind of music, but to be able to do it well is another story. Hell, half...