I can not tell a lie about the latest playlist I’ve compiled over the last two weeks because the heaviness of it speaks for itself. I’ve got Aussie metalcore group Polaris and metal scene legends All That Remains in the first half and a pillar of heavy metal history to help close out the playlist. I’m also playing with some of the more eclectic side with some POORSTACY, Hurricane On Saturn and So Below and I balance it out with the incredibly likeable Wet Leg, BANNERS and the Bring Me The Horizon track that introduced me to YONAKA.
Track #1: Wet Leg – Ur Mom – Wet Leg (2022)
I have to credit my wife for showing me this duo of ladies out of Isle Of Wight, England and I fell in love with their debut album immediately. A great sound, poppy and catchy songwriting and a sort of drollness make Wet Leg one of the best new bands to hit the mainstream in my opinion and this track is a great indicator of all of those traits. The final single released off of the album, the song is decidedly surf rock and has songwriter Rhian Teasdale calling out an ex-lover and telling them to forget her entirely, punctuated by a primal scream that brings us out of the song. Some really great stuff here and I was happy to see that some of my friends picked up on it when I shared it.
“You said that you tried your best
Why’s this such a fucking mess?
You’re always so full of it
Yeah, why don’t you just suck my dick?
And when the lights go down on this fucking town
I know it’s time to go
And when you’re getting blazed, spooning mayonnaise
Yeah, I know it’s time to go”
Track #2: Hurricane On Saturn – I Want – I Want (2023)
Thanks to bands like Eskimo Callboy, I have found myself quite interested in electronic metalcore bands and thighs adjacent to that. It’s not really a stretch as I loved techno, electro, electropop and dig metal, obviously, and bands like Rammstein so discovering this mask-wearing five-piece isn’t really a stretch for me. With a frenetic energy that mixes up the guttural vocals with the melodic here and there, this band is the closest this forty-something will ever get to the club or the art of clubbing but, with the vibe given, I can see the allure. This is definitely not for everyone but I feel like some people will really pick up on this song and I’m looking forward to it appearing on a full album.
“Running away from the sun and the flashlight
The illusion your words can count something to me
I’ll dodge all the shit coming out from your dull mouth
I’m the fucked up hellion you don’t like but you need
I claim
I require
I squeeze
I desire
Everything life can give
To please all my greeds”
Track #3: All That Remains – The Air That I Breathe – The Fall Of Ideals (2006)
I’m excited to break this track out as it reminds me of a time when I used to show up to HMV, my local CD and DVD shop (remember those?!?), and buy a stack of brand-new metal discs on payday. This album was one of my blind buys back in the day, the third record from this Springfield, Massachusetts metalcore band, and I spun it over and over again, but this, the third single off of it, is probably my favorite. The sound of this album, produced by Killswitch Engage guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz, really comes through on it and would be my go-to for showcasing this absolute ripper of a mid-2000s offering. Also, it is not a cover song of the classic Hollies song. Just felt I needed to say that.
“I have suffered defeat, pain, loss
Still I push to the edge, never falter
For this cements my beliefs (This cements my beliefs!)
I’ll remain my own master
I will not relent, no, no
Never suffer defeat, never falter
For this cements my beliefs (this cements my beliefs!)
I will not choke on failure!”
Track #4: Thornley – Beautiful – Come Again (2004)
I’m pretty sure I stated it before when I posted a classic Big Wreck single to an earlier playlist but I’m a massive fan of frontman Ian Thornley, a man I lovingly call the “Chris Cornell of Canada”. His debut as a solo artist is a treasure trove of great songs that I constantly vibe to but this song’s drive in particular always gets me. The final single off of the record, it has an opening worthy of the song title before heading into a a crunchy chorus that I always sing along with. The personnel on this record are a supergroup of sorts in Canada as well as it’s a combo of Art Of Dying, The Watchmen and Bedouin Soundclash, as well as Ian, a piece of one of my favorite homegrown bands of all time.
“Light my past on fire
Spell it right in black and white
A coward’s here for hire”
Track #5: Polaris – The Remedy – The Mortal Coil (2017)
I really have Spotify Recommendations to thank for my immediate interest in this metalcore band but once I started hearing tracks off of their album, The Death Of Me, I was easily hooked. In my journey through their music, I focused on this record, their debut, and pulled so many tracks off it as newly liked songs and this one, the second single released, is one I go back to again and again. This song is a heavy cruncher and it seems that playlist number thirteen has that as its main feature and I’m actually surprised it hasn’t happened sooner. That said, this kick-ass five-piece from Sydney kicks some serious ass.
“Running circles, old habits die hard
Each lesson learned never seemed to get too far
Call me reckless, call me stuck in my ways
I’m torn between the remedies for everything”
Track #6: Yellowcard – Breathing – Ocean Avenue (2003)
Even though I kicked off this playlist with some Wet Leg, this might be the poppiest thing I’ve put on this group of songs so far but there’s something in the tightness of this Jacksonville, Florida rock band that extends them beyond being a mere radio single generator from the mid-2000s. The best thing about bringing this song, my favorite of their entire discography, is that it wasn’t one of the three singles released off of this, their fourth record. The song has such a high-school heartbreak feel that pins the band exactly in that pop-punk arena between blink 182 and A Simple Plan, as they are most often described. Some may say that Yellowcard resides in the realm of guilty pleasures but I’m willing to throw them on this pretty metal-filled playlist as a sort of reprieve from the static.
“And I can feel you breathing
And it’s keeping me awake
Can you feel it beating?
My heart’s sinking like a weight
I can feel you breathing
It’s keeping me awake
Could you stop my heart? It’s always beating
Sinking like a weight”
Track #7: POORSTACY – Hills Have Eyes – Hills Have Eyes (2020)
This is definitely a recommendation from Spotify that got this Palm Beach, Florida artist on my radar but the multi faceted style of POORSTACY is what made me do a deeper dive on his stuff. Classified in multiple genres, emo rap, post-punk, punk rock, punk rap and dance-punk, one of these aspects of his work really clicked with me and I found myself really vibing to the sounds he’s producing. This track is a really solid introduction to this artist who took his name from Lords Of Dogtown skateboarder Stacy Peralta who, according to POORSTACY, was not shown a lot of attention at the start, but he ended up being one of the biggest legends in skateboarding. With this song, he digs into the debauchery of Hollywood and California to the point of excess.
“People act strange in the Hollywood hills
Living in fame, getting high on pills
High price tag on a lotta cheap thrills
Brand new bag, red bottom high heels
High-waist shorts, can you show me how it feels?
Cocaine, caviar, champagne, X pills
Soft kisses on your neck, you like it when I give you chills
Hollywood kills”
Track #8: So Below – Bone – Left Behind (2020)
Let’s get some electro vibes back into this heavier playlist filled here and there with oddities. There isn’t a lot of information I can find on the producer of some really great grooves in this artist, So Below, but I have found that they are from Auckland, New Zealand and were very nice in reaching out to me on Instagram when I posted it. I think they were taken aback by this being the song that I posted as it is about crushing so intensely for someone who is already in a relationship and feeling the hurt of rejection that’s as painful as cutting “straight through the bone.” I think it was the darkness of the main thread in this song that spoke to me most but I’m weird like that.
“You think it’s easy for me
Collapsing under my dreams
Could shake it off but you don’t
And it cuts straight through the bone
Am I supposed to believe
You’d ever give it up for me?
It’s worse each time I let go
And it cuts straight through the bone”
Track #9: Bring Me The Horizon feat. YONAKA – ±ªþ³§ – Music To Listen To (2019)
When I heard this song for the first time, I was already a pretty big fan of the work of Oli Sykes and Bring Me The Horizon, as evident from a track already appearing on one of my playlists but this was my introduction to the incredible sounds of YONAKA. Making their way from Brighton, East Sussex, the vocals of Theresa Jarvis hooked in my ear immediately and I did a deep dive on them very quickly but it was this ambient and quiet track that started the drive to listen to everything they’ve done. The beats and melody of this song make it one of my favorite collaborative pieces from Bring Me The Horizon and is my favorite piece off of this EP in particular. To be honest, this record in particular is one for the superfans as many of the tracks are close to ten minutes or over, except this one.
“Moments we shared
I only ever see them in my nightmares
Don’t wanna wake up
We existed
You gave me reason for our living
You set me on fire
You set me on fire”
Track #10: Nothing But Thieves – Amsterdam – Broken Machine (2017)
It’s another return as a Brit rock band I’ve really been taken by gets their second entry on the playlists, another showcasing of the killer vocals from lead singer and guitarist Conor Mason. The song was the first single off of their second album, a record that started to explore the band’s sound a bit more. The song seems to explore the strvie versus drive mentality when it comes to going with the grain of modern society or rising above it but beyond that the melody is great and I really love that chorus. Nothing But Thieves is a definite new favorite and I have so many songs across their four albums on my liked songs list.
“People piss you off
Some you say you love
Those you call a friend
Walking through a crowd
Then you look around
See there’s no one left”
Track #11: Royal Blood – Out Of The Black – Royal Blood (2014)
What a great way to add one of my current favorite rock bands, with their first record and what I think is the first song of theirs I ever heard, which is fitting as it was the debut single. There’s so much to this song beyond it introducing us to a loud duo that kicks thorough ass on this record and every subsequent one. The alternate cut of the music video is really cool as it comes from the mind of the creator of Superjail, a weird acid trip of a cartoon on Adult Swim. This was the beginning of a real love affair with what I think is one of the best new bands of the 2010s.
“You made a fool out of me and took the skin off my back running
So don’t breathe when I talk, ’cause you haven’t been spoken to
I’ve got a gun for a mouth and a bullet with your name on it
But a trigger for a heart bleeding blood from an empty pocket”
Track #12: Iron Maiden – 2 Minutes To Midnight – Powerslave (1984)
I feel like it’s been a really long time since I brought something that defines the term classic and I decided to reach back to one of the pillars of metal through the ages and evolutions. Fronted by possibly the hardest working frontmen STILL working in touring music, Maiden is a band that certainly has reverence with me even if I really only have a few songs in their discography that I actually revisit. That aside, there is no denying the awesomeness of this energy boost of a song that features a beautiful solo from guitarist Adrian Smith. To be cheesy, the solo soars like Bruce Dickinson as the pilot of their tour plane. I regretted that one as soon as I typed it.
“Kill for gain or shoot to maim
But we don’t need a reason
The Golden Goose is on the loose
And never out of season
Blackened pride still burns inside
This shell of bloody treason
Here’s my gun for a barrel of fun
For the love of living death”
Track #13: BANNERS – Start A Riot – Banners (2016)
I know this one is a really weird fit based on all of the heavy and eclectic things I’ve put on list thirteen but we might as well manage to go out on something a little bit chill for the last two. Hailing from the birthplace of The Beatles, Liverpool, England, Michael Joseph Nelson, the singular man known as BANNERS, relocated to Canada in 2015, just before the release of this EP, so maybe we can claim him as our own. With a beautiful voice and an echoey sound that resonates to the sky, this song speaks of such a loving devotion and the command to go to the ends of the earth to defend that and, when I look at my loved ones, I definitely conquer that idea. In a year of great debuts, like Wolf Alice, Kaleo and weird shit like The Lennon Claypool Delerium, this was one of my favorites for sure.
“I will march down an empty street like a ship into the storm
No surrender, no retreat
I will tear down every wall
Just to keep you warm
Just to bring you home
I will burn this city down for a diamond in the dust
I will keep you safe and sound when there’s no one left to trust
Will you take my hand?
We can make our stand”
Track #14: Pixies – Monkey Gone To Heaven – Doolittle (1989)
Well, it seems like I’m getting a bit selfish on my way out by putting a song that doesn’t really fit the video on the list but is a comfort song from a comfort album that I put on in its entirety pretty often. Pixies are a legendary Boston, Massachusets band that serves as the backbone of inspiration for so many other band that I listen to. This song in particular, off of their second studio album, was one of the two singles released, the other being the arguably more radio-friendly, Here Comes Your Man. I love that Black Francis is digging into an environmental stance in this song, a song device he rarely if ever again employs and the piece after the solo is one of my favorite moments of their entire discography. Doolittle is special to me but if it wasn’t for me finding this song for myself, the lifelong love affair never would’ve started.
“If Man is five, if Man is five
If Man is five, then the Devil is six
Then the Devil is six, then the Devil is six
The Devil is six, and if the Devil is six
Then God is seven! Then God is seven!
Then God is seven!”
Steve Stebbing 