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 the appeal of punk in so many words is a joyful naivety, that a limit in skill doesn’t become a limit in performance, and that sheer gusto and will can carry you further than rote technique. But groups like Fake Names underscore that those who commit their lives to this music often accrue a deep set of musical chops and a remarkable ear for turnarounds, melodies, progressions, and chord voicings even if they couldn’t tell you what exactly they were playing. To master this type of rock is an exercise in intellect and heart, two elements Fake Names are abundant with.
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Honorable Mentions
Cirith Ungol – “All the Shadows”
Cirith Ungol are for me the pinnacle of the myth and magic of heavy metal, what it is when rock, blues, and punk are fully subtracted out. What remains? This: a vision of Michael Whelan artwork, Elric wielding Stormbringer the vampire blade, a gargantuan skeletal force. This is early RUSH, especially Caress of Steel, mixed with late ’70s Judas Priest and the dank dungeons and choking torch smoke of the evil fantasy that births heavy metal. This is the music of skulls in darkness dripping blood from the mouth, of dark portals to mad realms, all the pitched imaginarium that makes heavy metal so intoxicating. They are one of the greatest heavy metal bands in the world, criminally underrated, and they are back, adding on to a return run that now, much like Satan’s return a decade ago, is arguably stronger than their initial run forty plus years ago.
Darkest Hour – “Suffer Divine”
Every Virginia native in the worlds of heavy metal and hardcore would die for Darkest Hour who, along with Lamb of of God, are our hometown heroes done good. Darkest Hour here brings inclusivity with a knife, a militant political vigor which is as necessary for getting shit done as it is for having a clean divide between the necessary diligence and compassion of daily life and that more intense work civics demands of us. Hardcore is a manner of thought and engagement with the world as much as it is a type of music, and these wicked thrashing riffs affirm that this type of music comes from someplace inside.
Nails – “Fear Based Life”
This is my kind of metalcore. Nails return with a single that is bleak and foul, wielding chromatic riffs and Slayer worship delivered with a ragged throated howl. No clean vocals, no melodic choruses, in and out in under three minutes. Lord knows I love dynamics and sweep and scope, but when it comes to this kind of music, I want it to be purpose driven toward rattling raw aggression, and Nails have never once failed to deliver on this.
