Heavy Song of the Week is a feature on Heavy Consequence breaking down the top metal, punk, and hard rock tracks you need to hear every Friday. This week, the top selection goes to Aerosmith and Yungblud’s collaborative single “My Only Angel.”
Aerosmith and Yungblud’s new collab “My Only Angel” is significant for both artists. For Aerosmith, it marks their first new music in over 12 years, not to mention their first song since Steven Tyler’s vocal injury forced the band to retire from touring last year. For Yungblud, it silences some recent skeptics.
For context, Aerosmith and Yungblud — the latter in particular — faced criticism for their recent live collab during the VMAs’ Ozzy Osbourne tribute, with The Darkness’ guitarist Dan Hawkins calling it “another nail in the coffin of rock ‘n’ roll” and his brother, frontman Justin Hawkins, labeling Yungblud a “poser.”
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“My Only Angel” should quell some of the negativity. It’s an excellent rocker with an uplifting romantic tinge, performed as a duet by Tyler and Yungblud — with the Aerosmith singer holding down the lower register, and Yungblud the higher end (a little nasally but a marked improvement from his rendition of “Crazy Train” at the VMAs). The chorus is an inspired slice of melodic hard rock, with the instrumentation powered by Joe Perry’s legendary guitar playing and a steady but powerful drum track courtesy of former Guns N’ Roses stickman Matt Sorum.
Honorable Mentions:
Arch Enemy – “Break the Spell”
If it seems like we’ve been telling you about Arch Enemy‘s Blood Dynasty album for over a year straight, it’s because we kinda have. The Swedish band has elongated the album cycle even further with the announcement of a deluxe edition, which adds three new tracks, “Break the Spell” among them. We don’t blame them for milking it, as the band has tapped into a rare echelon of quality and quantity, with their latest track being something akin to “extreme hard rock.” Alissa White-Gluz’s harsh howls are befitting of the melodic death metal the band typically performs, but the bouncy guitar arrangement is too accessible and rock-oriented to qualify as melo-death — thus, too far off the path for the original tracklist, but still worthy of an ancillary release.
Biohazard – “Death of Me”
Biohazard let the riffs swing at an infectious mid-tempo on “Death of Me.” It’s a welcome change of pace from the faster, moshier stuff we’ve heard from the band’s forthcoming comeback album Divided We Fall, and that variation goes a long way when you take hardcore out of the live setting and put it on a disc to listen to at home. “One of my favorites,” enthused drummer Danny Schuler in a press release. “To me, this song embodies the frustration, miscommunication, and intolerance that we sometimes deal with in our lives.”
Dead Heat – “By My Will”
Dead Heat caught our ear a few weeks ago with their track “Perpetual Punishment” and make a return to the weekly rundown with the follow-up single, “By My Will.” Most of what we said before stands true for this one: Dead Heat are executing old-school thrash metal with decisive historical accuracy, as far as capturing that vintage Bay Area sound is concerned. “By My Will” sees the band cranking up the tempo for a punkier, sub-three-minute thrash assault.