WSOU Picks of the Week: Bad Wolves, Orange Goblin, Stryper, Sleep and Dance Gavin Dance
Seton Hall University’s WSOU radio is the only all-metal, all-the-time station currently broadcasting in the US, and has been a force in metal for DECADES. It’s also streamable online from anywhere in the world! Each week, the staff of WSOU shares their picks for the heaviest of the heavy, as well as the station’s charts for that week, right here on MetalSucks. Enjoy:
Bad Wolves – “Learn to Live” (Nick E.)
Some cool stuff this week from Bad Wolves’ new release, Disobey. One track in particular, “Learn to Live,” sticks out for its supremacy. A great build up starts the track off before an explosion of heavy power takes over. The song continues to drive with solid riffs and vocals, and I feel the entire three and a half minutes in my chest.
Stryper – “Take It To The Cross” (Katie W.)
Since when did being a devout Christian mean you couldn’t also pay homage to the gods of heavy metal? Stryper’s newest album, God Damn Evil, is the most current and top source for raw heavy metal mixed with a meaningful message. Once branded as the resident Christian hair metal group of the ’80s, Stryper seem to have found a new niche of metal with penetrating vocals, thrashy guitars, and even some death growls from Michael Sweet on the album’s opener, “Take It To The Cross.”
Orange Goblin – “Sons of Salem” (Garren L.)
It has been four years since the last Orange Goblin album and that’s just about three and a half years too long for me. Enter The Wolf Bites Back and the new song “Sons of Salem,” an upbeat, energetic track which revels in its fuzzy, witchy sound. While many of Orange Goblin’s peers seem content to continuously pay homage to Black Sabbath, on this track Orange Goblin seem more drawn to bands from the southern United States like Down and Corrosion of Conformity. The Wolf Bites Back comes out on June 15th via Candlelight Records.
Sleep – “The Botanist” (Mike R.)
“The Botanist” is the final track on Sleep’s 2018 comeback album, The Sciences. Clocking in around six minutes and 27 seconds, the sludge legends manage to fit a massive amount of trippy and spacey heaviness into what is the second shortest song on the record. Along with the rest of the album, this song boasts an updated and slightly more polished sound that is still undeniably Sleep. “The Botanist” shows that Sleep still have their chops, and finds the band sounding better than ever.
Dance Gavin Dance – “Son of Robot” (Nick P.)
My thoughts on the first 26 seconds of Dance Gavin Dance’s new single, “Son of Robot,” were, “Wow, maybe they are going to take this album in a softer direction.” My thoughts at the 27th second: “Haha, nope.” The guitar duo of Will Swan and Andrew Wells has never disappointed, and neither has John Mess’s screams that cut into the calm of the opening. On top of all of this, it goes without saying that Tilian Pearson’s vocal range takes what is already great and brings it to the next level. Now I’ll be getting weird looks for the music and sounding like a dying animal trying to sing along with Tilian.
