10 Greatest Hard Rock Songs Of 2020
5. LOADED - HMLTD
If there's anything that has been kind to the rock genre in recent years, it's nostalgia. From the latest '80s throwback acts to the blatant retreading of past glory, plenty of artists have been trying to have their 15 minutes of fame by just pulling from the riffs that have come before. Regardless of the "subconscious borrowing," HMLTD is a classic example of making those old sounds feel new again.
At the very start of the year, these transplants out of England came out with their first album of post-punk chaos. When listening to a song like LOADED, you can almost hear bits and pieces of a band like Depeche Mode or even the darker parts of Joy Division, and yet there's something about the subject matter that is all too familiar. Much like Green Day tried to do on their single Bang Bang, this is told from the perspective of a mass shooter who is down on his luck and looking to get famous off of the carnage he spreads.
Though this could have been considered in bad taste by many, there's an awful lot of dark commentary to this track, as Henry Spychalski sings like he couldn't care less for those around him. While there have been a ton of throwbacks as of late, this is the one example of how you can recontextualize those sounds for a new generation.