Single Slam: Orbit Culture, Rouge Half, Phoxjaw, IOTA, InTechnicolour, Kassogtha, Dohny Jep, Enslaved and Devin Townsend!

This week’s single slam features Orbit Culture, Rouge Half, Phoxjaw, IOTA, InTechnicolour, Kassogtha, Dohny Jep, Enslaved and Devin Townsend. You can read our thoughts about the latest singles from these bands below.

Orbit Culture – Vultures of North

Sweden’s Orbit Culture are quickly taking the metal world by storm, continuing with the release of their vicious new single ‘Vultures of North’. The single precedes Orbit Culture’s debut USA tour supporting In Flames, which kicks off next month, and will feature on their upcoming full-length (due early 2023).

Oh, hell yeah! Orbit Culture have new music and it freaking slays. Pure head-banging gold, the simplicity of what Orbit Culture are doing here can’t hide the cleverness that exists in the detail. Heavy, fast and aggressive. This is a punch to the stomach with a hilarious amount of catchiness to the chorus. A word that really shouldn’t apply to music this intense but this is Orbit Culture so what do you expect!? Brilliant. Utterly brilliant.

Rogue Half – Death Throes

Adelaide alternative metal quartet Rogue Half emerge from a couple of years away with their explosive new single, “Death Throes”. The new single leads the way towards their fresh new EP, ‘The Middle Distance’, out Friday November 4th.

A foot-tapper and a head-banger in equal measures. The heftiness of the instrumentation balanced by clean and catchy vocals, a smattering of aggressive growls, electronica and a top-shelf chorus. An infectious listen, this sticks in the mind long after. That chorus really is fire. Check it out here.

Phoxjaw – thesaddestsongever

Mercurial Bristol quartet Phoxjaw have announced their hotly-anticipated new album notverynicecream, to be released 11th November via Hassle Records. At the same time, the band have also released their new single ‘thesaddestsongever’, the second glimpse of notverynicecream following their previous single ‘sungazer’.

If there’s one thing you can always gurantee with Phoxjaw is that whatever they release, it is going to be uniquely interesting. Guess what? Thesaddestsongever is both of those things and some more.

Showcasing some cool 80’s vibes, thesaddestsongever is a blend of gorgeous melody, powerful synth, catchiness and resounding power (thanks to the latter portion of the track). It’s a really mellow slice of smoothness that sits comfortable in the brain matter. Roll on the full album.

IOTA – Sometimes

Bristol-based rock five-piece IOTA have released their brand-new single ‘Sometimes’ today, taken from their upcoming EP due later this year.

Speaking about the single, vocalist Jodie Robinson states:

This song was written about a loved one after a freak accident that I witnessed. It really put everything into perspective and threw me into a realm of gratitude with a whole new found respect for having that person in my life. It’s a love letter to this person and a reminder to appreciate what you have before it’s too late.

Back with another banger, IOTA’s new single bleeds heartfelt passion. A melodramatic rock bouncer that has a pensive quality to it while being suitably energised. The vocals are easily the high point of the track but the punch of the chorus is well worth mentioning too. Bursts of intensity and harder rhythmic points makes this one hell of a memorable listen. Check it out here.

InTechnicolour – the Wave

UK rock quartet InTechnicolour have announced their new album Midnight Heavyweight, due for release on 4th November 2022 via their new label home, Small Pond Records. The sophomore record follows their hugely successful debut album Big Sleeper (2020, Big Scary Monsters) and recent standalone single ‘San Francisco’.

The band have also released their new single ‘The Wave’, a song born from feeling bored with life’s direction.

Guitarist Dave Jackson comments:

Midnight Heavyweight comes from a much darker place than we intended. Life got very real very quickly, so naturally what came out the other side reflected that… Made for a hell of an album though.

The combination a dark subjects and catchy rock vibes is always an interesting one and it’s something InTechnicolour certainly deliver on here. A mix of downcast melody, an unusual rhythmic structure, a punchy chorus and an unexpected explosion of heavy intensity. The Wave is choppy, chuggy and crunchy. A very cool listen.

Kassogtha – Eclipse

Swiss progressive death metal quintet Kassogtha have revealed their stunning new single, ‘Eclipse’, along with news of their tour support of fellow compatriots Cellar Darling and British alternative rockers Black Orchid Empire.

‘Eclipse’ is another tantalising glimpse into Kassogtha’s forthcoming concept album rEvolve, a chapter that will take you into the darkest parts of their journey.

The opening salvo of guitars, drums and light symphonic touches gives this track progressive weight from the vert start. Then, it transforms into something harder and heavier sounding as the vocals arrive. A blend of powerfully clean grandiosity and crushing death metal growls and roars. It’s six-plus minute run time flies by in a blur of crunchy progressive heaviness. Check it out here.

Dohny Jep – Wine and Dine

Wine and Dine is the latest single from Kent-based alternative-rock trio Dohny Jep.

Speaking about the single, vocalist Pete Herbert states:

Wine and Dine in its purest form is about love. It’s about those first moments of meeting someone new and the adventures that you are about to go on together, but also those first moments of conflict and how you pull together to get through those harder moments.

New Dohny Jep is always a reason to celebrate and with Wine and Dine, the group continue to show just why they are such a hot prospect in the rock world. The track blends electronica, pop melodies and an anthemic rock punch. Once again, the chorus is absolute fire. After all, Dohny Jep don’t write bad choruses. However, there are some really notable elements around that too. The melody is heartfelt and pretty, the vocals are phenomenal and the electronica effects help enhance the poppier elements of the track. This is excellent.

Enslaved – Kingdom

Enslaved have released a new track titled ‘Kingdom’ alongside an evocative concept video. The unorthodox Norwegians have found themselves at an intersection of sorts, where the momentum of living time rushes forward at an ever-increasing pace, imperceptibly modulated by the primeval echoes of eons past.

Ivar Bjørnson stated:

Kingdom – a tribute to the endurance of ideas and the people that carry them forward through hardship and fatigue, for the benefit of us all. Musically, it is a tribute to the Riff and the Rite: to the Teutonic Thrash kings, to Space Rock, to the Ambient pioneers of the 70s. With this we ask you to join us on this coming trek. Thanks for listening!

Experimental as hell, Enslaved showcase an incredible amount of creativity with this new track. In lesser hands, the blend of old-school heavy riffs, thrashy groove, ambient space rock, avant-garde vibes and so much more would fall extremely flat. Here, it’s a source of fascination that is up there as one of the band’s most challenging tracks to date. Expect the unexpected with this band but even here, words can’t quite do the unusual and addictive nature of this track justice. Check it out here.

Devin Townsend – Moonpeople

Devin Townsend is pleased to announce the first single to be taken from his forthcoming new album ‘Lightwork’, due out 28th October 2022. Following months of hard work finishing the album, as well as an extensive European touring schedule that included 2 nights at London’s Royal Albert Hall, the first piece of new music taken from his much-anticipated new album is ready to be heard.

‘Moonpeople’ is the album’s opening track, and arrives with a video filmed by Devin himself while he was in Spain earlier this year.

Devin comments:

Hey all, this is Devin. Welcome to my newest album ‘Lightwork’ The last few years have been a lot, and this is the music that I wrote during that time.

In essence, Lightwork is a bit more of a ‘song’ oriented album. A bit more direct and simpler than a lot of what I’ve been doing lately. After ‘Empath’ and ‘The Puzzle’, things kind of swung back in the direction of more traditional arrangements for Lightwork.

Lyrically, It kind of hints at the struggles of the last few years but with an eye on putting the pieces back together again.

We chose ‘Moonpeople’ as the first of three video releases from this project, The three videos share a theme, so I think that’ll work.

Moonpeople is the first song on Lightwork and acts as a sort of mission statement for the album. Post pandemic… kids are now teens… 50 years old, who am I now? Beyond any platitudes or delusions, who am I now that the smoke is clearing and what do I want to do, and who do I want to be, moving forward?

The term ‘Moonpeople’ in my mind, refers to those in society that kind of ‘watch’ things rather than being directly involved in it. Maybe the Moonpeople are more introverted rather than extroverted? In any case, it functions as a song on the album that will set the stage for the dynamic nature of the material that follows it.

So here you go. Song one.

It’s no secret that we here at GBHBL think Devin Townsend is a musical genius even if we don’t always get on with everything he releases. We, like so many others, admire his ever-evolving abilities and that he makes music that he wants to make. You never know what you’re going to get with Devin and you never know if you’re going to like it, love it or loathe it.

At first? This one didn’t quite resonate. However, the longer it goes on and the more it develops, this ends up being a slice of chilled, infectious, smile-inducing brilliance. The melodies, the ambience, the simplified beat, Devin’s subtle vocal performance; something that increases in intensity as it goes on. it’s genuinely stunning. Never doubt this man.