Friday Music Drops, 6/12/26
Introducing a new series of posts that I'll likely abandon after just this first entry: it's Friday Music Drops! The idea is that every Friday I will listen to the handful of new release songs my Spotify account recommends to me based on my previous listens and write my quick, off the cuff thoughts on each, without really doing any research, so that these posts are as pure as possible. Here we go!
Her Last Sight -- "Hit Me Like a Piñata (...One More Time)"
Her Last Sight are a screamo/metalcore band from Israel. The guitars are sometimes pretty technical, the screams are screams, and the singing is highly polished, but doesn't hit the noxious highs of the genre's greatest offenders. The band are most well-known for their humorous Instagram posts, where they will hard cut from a ridiculous viral video to a breakdown from one of their songs. That silly humor has become a part of the songs themselves, as some of their last few have featured, respectively, a Greek tavern breakdown and a county-western breakdown. Thus, I don't know why the mariachi breakdown in "Hit Me Like a Piñata (...One More Time)" caught me so off-guard (the vocalist even exasperatedly announces it). It's so fun! The song is extremely awesome and I like it.
Bring Me the Horizon -- "Black & Blue (2026 Repented)"
I feel like Bring Me the Horizon are one of those bands who teeter on the fine edge of me loving and hating them. I greatly enjoy a handful of their songs. Some others...not so much. This appears to be a remastered version of one of their older songs, when they were far less dynamic and just did a lot of screaming and chugging. Admittedly there are some pretty cool guitar leads sprinkled throughout the song.
SLANDER, Spiritbox, Vastive -- "Under My Skin"
I've been listening to Spiritbox for nearly a decade, and Courtney LaPlante's voice sounds like a warm blanket to me. That's the only element of Spiritbox here on "Under My Skin." Courtney's opening melody and lyrics are far more simplistic and cloying than anything she does with Spiritbox, which makes me think that SLANDER, the main band credited here, wrote the majority of them. There's definitely some heavy rock elements in the song, but it appears SLANDER and Vastive are some sort of early 2010's dubstep revivalists or something, as that is a key musical element. However, the HUGE, infectious hook in the chorus is pure early 00's nu-metal/hard rock, reminiscent of Three Days Grace's "I Hate Everything About You," and I am not even going to pretend like I don't like it.
Wayside -- "Invisible Strings"
Wayside are one of many Deftones-influenced bands to pop up in the last decade. They've got more of a shoegaze lean than a metal one (more dreamy, less screamy), and "Invisible Strings" does indeed exemplify this. The intro, post-chorus, and outro riff is pretty heavy and chunky, but the verses are comparatively gentle (nice harmonies!), and the chorus is more soaring than heavy. A solid song by a solid band.
hinfort, Darkways -- "alive(Darkways Remix)
hinfort use dark, late 70's/early 80's new wave textures to make songs that are, particularly in the case of "alive," upbeat and optimistic. This is a remix of that song, which actually feels more like an "enhanced" version in that Darkways tweaked "alive" a little, leaving a lot of hinfort's instrumentation and incredibly low-ranged vocals intact, and adding some huge-sounding, sunny 80's synthesizers. I usually shrug at remixes, but this is a great take on an already great song.
Her Last Sight -- "Hit Me Like a Piñata (...One More Time)"
Her Last Sight are a screamo/metalcore band from Israel. The guitars are sometimes pretty technical, the screams are screams, and the singing is highly polished, but doesn't hit the noxious highs of the genre's greatest offenders. The band are most well-known for their humorous Instagram posts, where they will hard cut from a ridiculous viral video to a breakdown from one of their songs. That silly humor has become a part of the songs themselves, as some of their last few have featured, respectively, a Greek tavern breakdown and a county-western breakdown. Thus, I don't know why the mariachi breakdown in "Hit Me Like a Piñata (...One More Time)" caught me so off-guard (the vocalist even exasperatedly announces it). It's so fun! The song is extremely awesome and I like it.
Bring Me the Horizon -- "Black & Blue (2026 Repented)"
I feel like Bring Me the Horizon are one of those bands who teeter on the fine edge of me loving and hating them. I greatly enjoy a handful of their songs. Some others...not so much. This appears to be a remastered version of one of their older songs, when they were far less dynamic and just did a lot of screaming and chugging. Admittedly there are some pretty cool guitar leads sprinkled throughout the song.
SLANDER, Spiritbox, Vastive -- "Under My Skin"
I've been listening to Spiritbox for nearly a decade, and Courtney LaPlante's voice sounds like a warm blanket to me. That's the only element of Spiritbox here on "Under My Skin." Courtney's opening melody and lyrics are far more simplistic and cloying than anything she does with Spiritbox, which makes me think that SLANDER, the main band credited here, wrote the majority of them. There's definitely some heavy rock elements in the song, but it appears SLANDER and Vastive are some sort of early 2010's dubstep revivalists or something, as that is a key musical element. However, the HUGE, infectious hook in the chorus is pure early 00's nu-metal/hard rock, reminiscent of Three Days Grace's "I Hate Everything About You," and I am not even going to pretend like I don't like it.
Wayside -- "Invisible Strings"
Wayside are one of many Deftones-influenced bands to pop up in the last decade. They've got more of a shoegaze lean than a metal one (more dreamy, less screamy), and "Invisible Strings" does indeed exemplify this. The intro, post-chorus, and outro riff is pretty heavy and chunky, but the verses are comparatively gentle (nice harmonies!), and the chorus is more soaring than heavy. A solid song by a solid band.
hinfort, Darkways -- "alive(Darkways Remix)
hinfort use dark, late 70's/early 80's new wave textures to make songs that are, particularly in the case of "alive," upbeat and optimistic. This is a remix of that song, which actually feels more like an "enhanced" version in that Darkways tweaked "alive" a little, leaving a lot of hinfort's instrumentation and incredibly low-ranged vocals intact, and adding some huge-sounding, sunny 80's synthesizers. I usually shrug at remixes, but this is a great take on an already great song.
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