Single Slam: Grief Ritual, Swept to Sea, Abduction, and Tortured Demon!

Today’s single slam features Grief Ritual, Swept to Sea, Abduction, and Tortured Demon. You can read our thoughts about the latest singles from these bands below.

Grief Ritual – Gnaw

On their debut album ‘Collapse’, the anger, frustration, and disenfranchisement Grief Ritual feel about the UK and the wider world are laid bare. It will be released via Church Road Records on January 31st, 2025. Now, the band has released the second single from the album, ‘Gnaw’.

Says the band about the new single:

Gnaw is about fighting for yourself and rising up through the systematic torrents of failure and frustration around us, to find support in our communities, through allyship and friendship, and to find LGBTQIA+ joy in expression and being ourselves.

Continuing to express themselves in a uniquely raw and heavy way, Grief Ritual take a more measured approach here, but still infuse this track with so much garish ferocity, it’s startling. While expectations around this band does allude to heaviness, they continue to push the boundaries and this is them at their most violent sounding. Yet, it’s the passion and authenticity of what Grief Ritual do here that matters. This album is likely to set the bar high for 2025 very early indeed.

Swept to Sea – Shattered Glass

San Francisco Bay area melodic metalcore band Swept to Sea are back with a brand-new single called ‘Shattered Glass‘.

Horror-laden and heavy, Swept to Sea are going for a more savage route with this new track. Infusing elements of black metal into their crunchy death sound and putting melody in the background in favour of a frontal assault of brutality. It certainly ensures that this new track is them at their heaviest sounding.

Abduction – A Legacy of Sores

UK extreme metallers Abduction will release their highly anticipated new album, ‘Existentialismus’, on 21st February, 2025, via Candlelight. To celebrate this announcement, they’ve also released the new single, ‘A Legacy of Sores’.

They’re back, and back with a beast of a track that draws from the well of blackness deeply. So deep that listening to it will make you feel damned, provided you’ve been able to withstand the barrage of speed and heaviness that comes from it. It is an unrelenting experience that sees Abduction reaching near nonsense levels of extreme. As far as sheer savagery goes, this is going to be a tough one to top in 2025.

Tortured Demon – Nothing Left to Say

Hotly-tipped teenage thrashers Tortured Demon have revealed their new single ‘Nothing Left to Say’, ahead of their UK headline tour.

This track is going to sound killer live, especially as it continues the good form Tortured Demon have been on. Offering up a thrashy head banger with even more refined elements that showcase an ever-evolving band. One that has addictive melody, a massive sounding chorus, and a welcome touch of groove. Tortured Demon are sounding more and more anthemic, and this is up there as one of their most infectious tracks to date.