10 Best Hard Rock & Heavy Metal Songs Of 2018
8. Slugdge – “The Spectral Burrows”
On the surface, Slugdge don’t look like one of the most quintessential heavy metal acts on 2018. No, they look… dumb. This UK duo have made a name for themselves by worshipping at the altar of all things mollusc-related, parodying such classic heavy metal track titles like “War Pigs” and “Slave New World” as, respectively, “War Squids” and “Slave Goo World”.
However, the stupidity is only skin-deep: beneath these silly names lie vital progressive death metal tunes, tailor-made for fans of legends like Death and Opeth. Slugdge’s 2018 album, Esoteric Malacology, is by far their greatest to date, and “The Spectral Burrows” is easily the best song on that disc.
Yes, its title is a re-appropriation of Edge of Sanity’s criminally overlooked masterpiece The Spectral Sorrows. However, play this song and you will enter a realm of experimental extremity that seamlessly unites the most twisted of guitar riffs with hyper-exciting refrains. “The Spectral Burrows” uses more clean singing than any other Slugdge song, meaning that it has the same adventurous lunacy as every other track the band have put out, but also an increased catchiness as the cherry on top.
TL;DR? “The Spectral Burrows” is Gojira instrumentation butting heads with the vocals of modern Mastodon. And it is glorious.