Listen To This: 5 Songs You Need To Hear Right Now (March 16, 2020)

A lot of new music passes through the Kerrang! offices on a daily basis, from pop-punk to gore metal. And while we like plenty of what we receive, there are just some tracks that we need to tell the world about the minute we hear them. Welcome to Listen To This, a new weekly column where we share five new songs that make us excited to be rock fans. For everyone out there looking for something new and interesting to start off their week, get in here – you’ve got to hear this stuff.

***

It’s hard, given the sudden and somewhat staggering way the coronavirus has taken over our entire lives, to see a silver lining in the world right now. But rest assured, there is one: a self-imposed quarantine is a great way to catch up on new music. With no events to attend, bars to hang out at, or Internet dates to go on, there’s finally enough time to sift through all the material out there and enjoy some new tunes.

Here are five tracks that jumped out at us from within our pillow forts…

For fans of: Septicflesh, Belphegor, Slasher Dave

The distinct European horror of Carach Angren has put them miles above many of their peers. The Dutch symphonic black metal band have a focus on classical music and the macabre traditions of the Old Country that keep them from sounding too hokey, even at their hokiness. Their new single Monster embodies this -- though thoroughly drenched in the traditional atmosphere of the House Of Hammer, there’s a complete devotion to the song’s Frankensteinian themes that makes it especially compelling. Keep your eyes peeled for their new album later this year, as it’ll no doubt become required listening this Halloween.

Carach Angren's new album Franckensteina Strataemontanus comes out May 29.

READ THIS: 13 bands who should make their own haunted houses

Fan fans of: New Found Glory, Avril Lavigne, The Veronicas

Most of you know Not Ur Girlfrienz drummer Maren Alford as the 14-year-old viral sensation who blew up over her spot-on drum cover of Slipknot’s Unsainted. Now Maren’s full-time band have released a new single called Game Over, basically telling boys to go jump in a lake and doing so through a fun, retro video game-themed video. The music might be a little polished for your average thrash mutant or black metal kvltist, but it has a driving pop sensibility that’ll no doubt attract younger listeners the world over. The kids, it appears, are all right.

For fans of: Latter-day Carpathian Forest, Gehenna, Xibalba

The new Ruinas track just wouldn’t be quite as awesome if it wasn’t in Spanish. The Galicia, Spain-based deathgrind duo have a fury to them that might sound typical with commonplace English lyrics about death and destruction, but which takes on an extra level of power in the band’s native tongue. That said, it’s also the killer riffs, blazing solo, and all-out no-fucks-given attitude on Instinto Genozida that makes it a track you should blast at this very moment. ¡Fodemos con esta banda!

Ruinas' new album Ikonoklasta comes out March 20.

Fan fans of: Brand New, As Cities Burn, Boysetsfire

The ache on Heatseeker is pretty much the same as that conveyed in House & Home’s video for it: the honest memory of childhood. Sure, the Richmond trio’s single definitely has a bit more grown-up heartache to it, but the vibe throughout definitely has the same burnt expectations and low-lying sadness of a kid the first time he gets shoved down for no reason and no adult can explain why it happened. The video also has a cinematic vibe to it, raising this band above some of their low-to-the-ground peers.

House & Home's new album Find Sense. Feel Love. Make Light. comes out April 17.

Fan fans of: Electric Six, The Lovemakers, Sky-Pony

Vampire Disco Club: a rare case of a band providing music that sounds exactly like what they promise with their name. Sexy and funky but with a shadow edge and a sense of violence at its core, Ruby Veins is definitely the soundtrack to walking into a thumping club full of hungry nosferatu. A one-man project, the band has potential to fill a sweet spot between the art-pop most “grown up” former metal and punk bands are making and the morbid underground of horror metal. An incredibly fun track for those thumbing the blood from the corner of their mouth.

Vampire Disco Club's Ruby Veins is available for purchase now.

READ THIS: The 30 greatest songs about vampires