Essential Tracks This Week: Mclusky, Circuit des Yeux, and more

It’s a good week for the return of some great bands playing loud, heavy music, including Mclusky, who we interviewed a couple years back, in case you missed it. Additionally, this week’s batch of the best new songs also brings with it a new one from Pelican, yet another standout single from the new album by Circuit des Yeux, and more. Queue up this week’s Essential Tracks.

Mclusky – “way of the exploding dickhead”

Mclusky’s been back to making their signature, bruising noise rock for a while now, playing tours in the UK and U.S. over the past few years and even issuing a two-song single. They’ve finally announced the details of their first new album in over 20 years, and the Welsh group is as potent and acerbic as ever, offering a hefty set of bruising power-chord riffs and well-tuned trash talk. “Survey says: Pricks abound!” chants vocalist Andrew Falkous, aiming barbs at a society of obnoxious dickheads. That’s the Mclusky I know and remember, the one I’ve missed all these years.

From The World Is Still Here and So Are We, out May 9 via Ipecac

Circuit des Yeux – “Canopy of Eden”

The deeper that Haley Fohr descends into a uniquely sinister strain of darkwave with oozing electronics, the better. While earlier highlights such as “Dogma,” from 2021’s -io, revealed Fohr’s affinity for post-punk-influenced art-pop ambience, “Canopy of Eden,” the second single from the upcoming Halo on the Inside, further solidifies her goth bona fides. Full of energetic dungeon-floor beats and petroleum-black goth-industrial synths, “Canopy of Eden” is Fohr’s fantasy of escaping a tourist-trap hell through psychic retaliation. “I can make a radio break,” she sings in the chorus, and as she musically conjures this kind of dark magic, it’s easy to believe her.

From Halo on the Inside, out March 15 via Matador

William Tyler – “Star of Hope”

It makes sense that William Tyler would release the first three songs of his upcoming album Time Indefinite together, as the trio of tracks feel almost like a suite, together comprising a triptych of atmospheric, otherworldly psychedelic abstraction. Yet there’s a definite standout of the three, that being “Star of Hope,” a gorgeous blend of solo guitar and hazy, distorted musical backing, almost like that of a sampled record being played through an interdimensional speaker system. It reminds me of the inventive and wonderfully haunted last album from Bill Orcutt, but gentler and more structured — a strange sound from another world that feels comforting in unsettling ways.

From Time Indefinite, out April 25 via Psychic Hotline

Iron Lung – “Lifeless Life”

It’s a big week for loud bands who haven’t released music in a while, and it’s been a full 12 years since Iron Lung last released an album. The Seattle powerviolence act is set to return with a blistering set of hardcore, which they previewed via this 50-second blast of noise and fury. Blink-and-you’ll-miss-it short though it might be, there’s no chance you’ll overlook the roaring intensity and sheer, pissed-off attitude, which is exactly what you want from a 50-second powerviolence song. At least that’s what I want from it, and Iron Lung delivers.

From Adapting // Crawling, out April 18 via Iron Lung

Pelican – “Cascading Crescent”

And while we’re on the subject, here’s another loud, heavy band that hasn’t released a new album in a while. Pelican’s six-year gap is perhaps not as long as Iron Lung’s 12 or Mclusky’s 21, but it’s still long enough to make me miss their uniquely heavy approach. “Cascading Crescent” rocks in a direct, highly satisfying way that draws more from stoner rock and post-hardcore than the epic post-metal of their earlier records. It’s also sounds like nobody but Pelican, the Chicago group crafting an epic without words, taking us on a journey through intricate dynamics and riffs galore.