The Mic Recommends... series brings you a selection of new singles from Behemoth, Fred again.., and Loyle Carner.
Versvs Christvs – Behemoth
The final song on the new album Opvs Contra Natvram by the Polish blackened death metal crew, Versvs Christvs is an excellent distillation of just what makes the band so good. Featuring the almost monastic musical flourishes that the band tend to enjoy, as well as the brutal death metal drums and icy guitar tones of Scandinavian black metal, Behemoth have crafted an excellent album that is epitomised into this final offering. The song builds gradually from the beginning, and with a lengthy runtime it allows for maximum appreciation when it finally hits towards the final minute of the song, allowing Nergal and co to smash you over the head with satanic lyrics, beastly growls, quivering riffs and pummelling percussion, that come together with obscene majesty to finish off what is an amazing album from the group. Jake Longhurst
Danielle (smile on my face) – Fred again..
After the internet-breaking Boiler Room set, South London artist-producer Fred again.. has released Danielle (smile on my face). It’s the first single from his third studio album Actual Life 3 and returns to the stirring ambient house of his previous two records. However, the song is more heavily rave-oriented than the previous two, perhaps influenced by recent standalone Fred again.. singles, like Turn out the Lights. Danielle surges atop a pulsing synth bass-line and an emotionally charged vocal sample from artist 070 Shake “fuck what they say, I’m safe in your arms, and if I die in your arms, there’d be a smile on my face.” It’s not the most sonically unique of Fred’s tracks: it includes a relatively typical progressive house instrumental, yet still signals good things for Actual Life 3, which may well be the most exuberant and energetic Fred again.. record so far. The album’s going to have a dark blue colour scheme, whereas its predecessors were red and yellow. It will no doubt bring us into a new emotional world, and showcase how much Fred’s skills have developed, at conveying catharsis, melancholy and excitement through sound. Caradoc Gayer
Pain Remains I: Dancing Like Flames – Lorna Shore
The biggest band in deathcore have dropped the next single from their upcoming album, which also happens to be the first of three songs to make up a progression of Pain Remains I, II, and III. In the same vein as their previous releases so far for this album, the song has an intro, albeit not like one we’ve heard before from them, featuring what sounds like a synth before an ominous guitar line takes over. This allows the band to create a very threatening atmosphere before they’ve even touched another instrument, and then all hell breaks loose. This is a love song but sounds as if the band want nothing but total decimation of any and all eardrums in the vicinity. The actual lyrics are about heartbreak and loss, which to their credit comes across in the more symphonic moments, allowing the more brutal moments to shine and also letting the band show off their skill and song writing ability throughout. With the force of a bomb being detonated, Lorna Shore have shoved themselves into the eyes of the metal community and fully intend to stay there. With songs like this, they’ll be there for years to come. Jake Longhurst
Nobody Knows (Ladas Road) – Loyle Carner
Nobody Knows (Lasas Road) crucially explores Larner’s identity as a mixed man of colour. This track, part of his album Hugo dropping in October, differs incredibly from his old albums in not just tone but intensity. Explored within Hate and Nobody Knows, is a recurrence of identity and the fragility at which it stands. Both songs strip him to something more raw and powerful than previously seen, arguably it is more than his lyrics becoming explosive, but the momentum with which he exclaims them and the reoccurring drums that fill the gaps between his thoughts in Nobody Knows that bolsters them. He is undeniably shouting and pleading for an ear to listen. The lyrical genius of Coyle-Larner stylizes this track as somewhat of an introspective array of how fractured he feels within his own identity. Searching for enlightenment within, he touches on sensitive topics definitive to his discography yet in a new way. The repetition of “nobody knows” and the very slight break in melody and pause at the start of this track enrich the sense of brokenness and alienation, encapsulating from the very first few seconds the message of this song. The second and final pause in music occurs at the line “how can i hate my father without hating me”, wedged between the riveting drums, demanding of attention. This forces the melody of the song to become even more fractured, thus the mood is completely torn in half, leaving the listener also feeling broken by this track. Coyle-Larner is searching for a resolution that does not exist inside of him. In releasing this single he teases at the unhinged display of emotions to come in his album, whilst pleading for recognition of this ongoing disregard for mixed people of colour and the identity dilemmas society forces upon them. Faith Hussain
Headshot – Replica Jesus
Local punk/metal band Replica Jesus have just dropped their latest single, and it’s full of all the fuzzy goodness you could hope for. If you’re a fan of Sabbath and Hendrix, but also partial to the heavier side of punk a la Refused or The Bronx, then you’ll love this. Headshot is a groovy song with plenty of bounce and is absolutely one that I can envision being amazing in a live setting. With the gang vocals towards the end already sounding like a set closer, the band aren’t sitting around and are absolutely gunning for bigger and bigger stages. Off the back of getting to the final of the Metal 2 The Masses competition, they will be aiming higher and higher, and it won’t be long before they get there. Jake Longhurst
Edited by: Roxann Yus
Cover image courtesy of Behemoth via Facebook.
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