Heavy Song of the Week: Loathe Fuse the Arthouse and the Accessible on “Revenant”

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 “Revenant” from Loathe.

The nu-metal revival has been auspicious, largely for sorting through the sounds of a scene that was quite a bit rougher to live through than we sometimes see said these days and isolating those moments of pop distillation of otherwise avant-garde material. The genre’s early influence from post-hardcore, wild prog groups like Mr. Bungle, early death metal and urban and electronic music get refiltered, subtracting out the elements that felt at times almost parodies of their sources first time around to get to something that is not just emotionally compelling but aesthetically developed.

This is a fancy way to say that Loathe’s new single “Revenant” doesn’t just satisfy on a headbanging end but an artistic one, as well. The icy synths against the compressed guitar slams, the very nu-metal bass work against the frantic metallic hardcore vocal right out of Converge, all of it is indicative of a band that isn’t just able to reach the mainstream but also able to retain an artful edge. The comparisons to Deftones they often receive aren’t without reason. Like that group, its indicative Loathe have greater aesthetic ambitions than either just playing to massive groups or making art music. They want, and are succeeding at, both.

Honorable Mentions

Elder, “Capture/Release”

Watching Elder’s transformation over the past nearly 20 years from a doom metal band to a progressive rock and heavy rock group has been deliriously fulfilling. This new track from their upcoming record Through Zero opens with neo-prog keyboards like out of a song by IQ or Arena set against ethereal Yes vocals before breaking out into a heavy prog groove that is absolutely infectious. It conjures a similar feeling to the Deep Purple classic “Highway Star,” the desire to drive a car through nightsky highways as fast as you can, streaking lights of every color, the sound of wind, speed.

Inferno, “Circulus Vitiosus Deus (The Infinity Ravages All)”

Inferno truck in a kind of churning, swirling approach to black and death metal, one that feels primordial and overwhelming. These riffs crash like waves in everything from their attack and decay to the way the hiss of distortion crests and dissipates. This is the sonic equivalent of being trapped in black water with stars above, the perfect mood for a genre so driven by its atmosphere and imagism. It’s progressive but in much the same way early Opeth was, focusing more on being moving and very visual rather than being showy or obtuse.

Placebo, “Lady of the Flowers RE:CREATED VERSION”

Placebo, one of the all-time greats of that first breaking wave of emo as it crested into the wider alternative rock world, approach this re-recording in a refreshingly modern way, taking note from current practitioners of similar material like the incredible Blackwater Holylight and adding a wave of fuzzed out heaviness. It’s not quite shoegaze, instead holding just behind that line in a space the Smashing Pumpkins might have called home. It’s the perfect amount. It’s like falling in love again.