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, we highlight Exodus’ new single “3111.”
Exodus with Rob Dukes is a whole ‘nother beast. “3111” marks the vocalist’s return to the fold after last appearing on an album in 2010, and what a return it is. On a song that’s about narco killings in Juarez, Dukes gives an sufficiently menacing performance that’s startlingly unhinged.
The other members of Exodus said Dukes gave “the performance of his life” on the band’s upcoming album — incredibly high praise to receive from your bandmates — and “3111” certainly hints at something special from the singer who took over for longtime frontman Steve Souza earlier this year. The rest of the band also sounds inspired here, with Gary Holt bringing over some evil Slayer riffs to vary up the band’s otherwise blistering thrash attack.
Honorable Mentions:
Def Leppard – “Rejoice”
Nine times out of 10, the constructs of a Def Leppard song probably start with Phil Collen presenting some chords, a riff, or an arrangement to the band, with things flowing from there. But on “Rejoice,” it was singer Joe Elliott who provided the creative spark, bringing a “zero to hero” lyrical concept to the table. Collen happened to have the right uplifting arrangement sitting around to match, resulting in one of the more Hysteria-esque songs from Def Leppard since the ’80s — pure arena rock joy.
Joel Hoekstra’s 13 – “Lifeline”
Rock guitar journeyman Joel Hoekstra is set to release a new album with his solo project entitled From the Fade (out February 27th). The latest single “Lifeline” is a surging melodic hard rocker with tasteful axework from Hoekstra — whose playing is expressive but not too showy — and some big-name contributions from the likes of drummer Vinny Appice and singer Jeff Scott Soto, who provides backing vox for golden-voiced frontman Girish Pradhan.
Myrkur – “Touch My Love and Die”
It’s bizarre to think of music in a competitive sense, but Amalie Brunn certainly had to when crafting this piece under her Myrkur moniker. The song is to be entered into the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix song competition, where it will be performed live — the winner advancing as Denmark’s entrant at Eurovision 2026. In that case (*puts judge’s hat on*), we’ve got what looks to be full marks here: incredible vocals from Brunn, complete with Nordic folk inflections; a genre-spanning, cinematic arrangement that has elements of black metal; and completely organic instrumentation and production. Good luck to Brunn in the actual competition… she’d be advancing if it were up to us.
