Heavy Song of the Week: Purest Form Unleash Caustic Industrial Rock on “Burn”

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, the honor goes to Los Angeles industrial act Purest Form for their new single “Burn.”

Purest Form hail from L.A. and dabble in classic industrial. We’re talking classic in the sense of bands like Nitzer Ebb, Skinny Puppy, and Front 242 — acts that immediately came to mind when we heard the trio’s new single “Burn.”

The requisite aesthetics are all here — old-school drum machines, arpeggiated synths, and throwback typography artwork — and the band’s reverence for the early pioneers of industrial rock is palpable. So, sure, it’s a recognizable and familiar sound; however, Purest Form arrange these elements for maximum harshness.

“Burn” is too bludgeoning to be a dance track, and the vocals are buried in the mix, deliberately sabotaging any potential footholds of accessibility for the delicate passing listener (this being further exacerbated by a brutal chorus drop of grinding noise). It’s a three-minute, 45-second sonic lashing.

Honorable Mentions:

Better Lovers – “Future Myopia”

Better Lovers are a Heavy Song of the Week mainstay at this point. We can’t in good faith not include them when they drop something new; this is the best metalcore of the moment. On “Future Myopia,” they send it to the extreme, dialing up mathematically precise stop-start riffs and torrents of aggression. It’s somehow an even tougher pill than the previous single and HSOTW honoree “A White Horse Covered in Blood,” but the slowed-down chorus is an effective changeup, with singer Greg Puciato hitting an Alice in Chains-y vibe that’s indicative of his side work in Jerry Cantrell’s live band.

Fit for an Autopsy – “Savior of None / Ashes of All”

Adding to a week of particularly aggro songs, Fit for an Autopsy’s “Savior of None / Ashes of All” is a feral crusher, broken up only by brief melodic vocal sections during the chorus. The sustained pummeling is impressive not just musically, but from a physical, athletic standpoint, as well (especially drummer Josean Orta). There’s little respite for the duration of the four-plus-minute track.

Mork – “Heksebål”

The guiding melodic riff of “Heksebål” is a fine piece of composition indeed. It’s timeless; one could imagine a bard performing this on a lute in some medieval courtyard — absolutely perfect when contextualized in the old-school black metal style. Eventually the riff quickens as the band turns the mid-tempo pace into a gallop and introduces harsh vocals.