Exclusive Premiere: Six of Swords, “Hell’s Messiah”

This past summer, the editors of MetalSucks hand-picked ten unsigned bands from an open application process to record at Converse Rubber Tracks — Converse’s completely free, state-of-the-art recording studio — in either Brooklyn, NY with producer Will Putney (The Acacia Strain, Suicide Silence, Exhumed), or Boston, MA, with producer Kurt Ballou (Converge, High on Fire, Torche). In the weeks leading up to the recording sessions, we previewed each band, and in the coming weeks we’ll be premiering the finished tracks from all ten! Today, we feature Toronto’s Six of Swords.

All it really takes create a great death metal song is great riffs. Yeah, songwriting is important — very important — but don’t worry, Six of Swords have you covered there.

So let’s talk about the riffs in “Hell’s Messiah,” the song the band recorded last month with producer Will Putney in the Converse Rubber Tracks Brooklyn studio. There’s the one that, in various permutations, comprises the intro and verse, an old-school Swedish death metal-style bruiser. Then there’s the chorus riff, a sliding pull-off that makes me wanna punch faces with the ferocity of Mike Tyson in his prime. Finally there’s the piece de resistance, what I guess would be called the breakdown (even though it’s not a breakdown) coming right out of the guitar solo… vintage Morbid Angel slime! So heavy.

Like I said, riffs.

Stream the track below and tell us what you think.