Six tracks landed this week that are worth your Friday. Mastodon released the third single from Marrow Deep, a song about standing in literal wreckage. Wage War put out a standalone track called “Sweet Dreams” that is absolutely not the cover you’re assuming it is. Marilyn Manson’s thirteenth album arrived today. And Green Lung wrote a love letter to occult rock that name-checks a Soho cafe where you could drink your coffee off a coffin. Here’s everything you need to hear.
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Mastodon â “In The Ruins”
The heaviest one on this list emotionally, and probably the best song of the week.
“In The Ruins” is the third single from Marrow Deep, out August 28 via Loma Vista, and it comes loaded with more grief than any band should have to carry into a record. This is Mastodon’s first album without Brent Hinds. Brann Dailor lost his mother, Michele. And in 2024, Hurricane Helene flooded Troy Sanders’ home and destroyed his family’s belongings, displacing them for close to two years.
That flood is what this song is about.
Musically it does something clever â it opens soft and clean, prog-leaning, riding a shuffle from Dailor, before detonating into the metallic back half with a pair of solos from new guitarist Nick Johnston. Nearly six minutes, and it earns every one of them. It’s a song about standing in the wreckage and working out how to move.
The animated video, directed by Hey Beautiful Jerk, follows a one-eyed skeletal creature called Frank picking his way across ruined landscapes looking for a heart. The director’s explanation of where Frank came from is one of the best origin stories you’ll read all year: ten hours in the ER with an eye infection so bad it felt like the eye was trying to escape, having just talked to Dailor about the song’s meaning, sketching Frank on a phone before the pain came back.
Grief made into something you can actually play loud. That’s the whole Mastodon project.
Wage War â “Sweet Dreams”
Let’s clear this up immediately, because you’re going to see the title and assume: this is not the Eurythmics song. It’s an original.
“Sweet Dreams” is a standalone single from the Florida metalcore outfit, following April’s It Calls Me By Name EP on Fearless, and it does the thing Wage War have spent a decade perfecting â bone-crushing breakdowns and throat-shredding aggression on one side, an enormous melodic chorus on the other, welded together so it doesn’t sound like two different bands arguing.
The band say it’s about being deceived by the world around you, and about the safety that comes with blissful ignorance. They also say, sonically, it draws on everything they’ve done over the past ten years. That’s an accurate description â this is the sound of a band consolidating rather than chasing.
The Errick Easterday-directed video ties into their fall Emergency Broadcast headline run, which kicks off October 25 in San Antonio with We Came As Romans, Varials and Cane Hill. UK and European dates follow in January 2027 with Invent Animate and Windwaker, and they’re the band’s biggest headline shows over there to date.
They’ve just come off a sold-out Australian run. This is a band in extremely good shape.
Marilyn Manson â “Unalive”
One Assassination Under God â Chapter 2 is out today, and “Unalive” opens it.
It’s the thirteenth Manson album, co-written and co-produced with Tyler Bates as before, and where Chapter 1 in 2024 played as a statement of resilience â the sound of somebody re-establishing that they were still here â Chapter 2 goes gloomier. Slower, foggier, more indebted to late-80s gothic rock than to the industrial stomp of the classic records.
“Unalive” sets that tone from the first bar. It’s built on that raspy theatrical baritone he’s got back in recent years, with a lot of whispering and atmosphere and comparatively little of the bludgeon. If you came for “The Beautiful People,” this isn’t that. If you liked the murk of Eat Me, Drink Me, you’ll find plenty here.
Nine tracks, Nuclear Blast, and it lands six days before the Freaks On Parade co-headline run with Rob Zombie opens in West Palm Beach on August 20, with The Hu and Orgy along for the ride.
thrown â “critic”
The most straightforwardly fun song on this list, in the sense that watching somebody kick a door down is fun.
Sweden’s thrown have been trickling out singles all year â “split” in the spring, “rehearsed” over the summer â and “critic” is the meanest of them. It’s exactly what the title promises: a track aimed squarely at the comment section, at hot takes, at metrics, at the entire economy of people with opinions and no output.
The hook, more or less, is that suddenly everybody’s a critic, followed by a very direct question about whether the band cares if you don’t like it. (The actual phrasing is unprintable here. You’ll manage.)
Musically it’s the nĂź-metalcore formula they’ve refined into a weapon â bouncing grooves, venomous vocals, breakdowns designed to make a room lose its mind. Buster Odeholm of Vildhjarta and Humanity’s Last Breath has handled production on this run, which explains why it hits like a truck. Midvessel directed the video.
They headline the US in October with Norma Jean, Boltcutter and Half Me, then Europe and the UK in November and December with Counterparts, No Cure and Heavensgate.
A song about not caring what critics think, in a weekly roundup written by a critic. We contain multitudes.
Skillet â “Lift Me Up”
Second single from the new Skillet era, and it lands in a heavier place than you might expect from where the band were a few years ago.
“Lift Me Up” follows “Scream,” which came out in July and did serious numbers, and both belong to After The Storm â an EP John Cooper has described as a six-track project. A specific October release date is circulating from pre-order listings, but the band haven’t officially confirmed it yet, so treat that as unconfirmed for now.
What’s notable is the direction. Cooper took the band back to Memphis for this material, working with a producer who knew them from before they’d even properly debuted, and the results have leaned noticeably harder than the polished arena rock of Victorious or Dominion. “Scream” was legitimately aggressive. “Lift Me Up” keeps that up while doing what Skillet do better than almost anyone â building a chorus you’ll be singing in the car whether you intended to or not.
Thirty years in, twenty-two platinum certifications deep, and they’re still one of the biggest bands in rock that a certain kind of metal fan pretends not to listen to. This is the era to stop pretending.
They’re currently running the Comatose: 20 Years, Still Screaming tour.
Green Lung â “Black Magick Radio”
And to finish, the most purely enjoyable thing released this week.
Green Lung are a London occult rock band who have spent the last few years quietly becoming one of the best live acts in British heavy music, and “Black Magick Radio” is the third single from Necropolitan, out September 11 via Nuclear Blast.
The concept is perfect. It’s framed as a 1960s pirate radio broadcast, hijacking the airwaves to spread occult rock’s gospel â the band’s own description is that it’s a love letter to the genre itself. Musically it tunes into vintage influences like Lucifer’s Friend and Black Widow, and it’s got that immediate, warm, riff-forward swing that made this music a phenomenon fifty years ago.
The details are what make it. It name-checks Le Macabre, a Soho cafe where you could drink your coffee off a coffin, and The Process Church of the Final Judgement, the pre-Manson cult that operated out of Mayfair. That’s a song doing actual historical research and still being catchy enough to shout along to.
They debuted it live at Summer Breeze during the eclipse, which is exactly the kind of thing this band would organise. The Billy Howard Price video features a suburban family rendered helpless by the song’s occult power.
Necropolitan runs nine tracks. Europe and the UK get the Dance To The Grave tour later this year with High On Fire and Gnome.
This week’s playlist
Mastodon â “In The Ruins”
Wage War â “Sweet Dreams”
Marilyn Manson â “Unalive”
thrown â “critic”
Skillet â “Lift Me Up”
Green Lung â “Black Magick Radio”
All six are in rotation on the Loaded Radio stream this weekend.
TL;DR
- Mastodon â “In The Ruins”: third single from Marrow Deep (August 28, Loma Vista), inspired by Hurricane Helene destroying Troy Sanders’ home. Their first album without Brent Hinds.
- Wage War â “Sweet Dreams”: a standalone original, NOT the Eurythmics song. Follows April’s It Calls Me By Name EP.
- Marilyn Manson â “Unalive”: opening track of One Assassination Under God â Chapter 2, his thirteenth album, out today via Nuclear Blast.
- thrown â “critic”: Swedish nĂź-metalcore aimed at the comment section, with a US headline run in October.
- Skillet â “Lift Me Up”: second single from the After The Storm EP, following July’s “Scream.” Heavier than recent Skillet.
- Green Lung â “Black Magick Radio”: third single from Necropolitan (September 11), a pirate-radio tribute to occult rock name-checking London’s proto-goth landmarks.
FAQ
Is Wage War’s “Sweet Dreams” a Eurythmics cover?
No. Despite the title, Wage War’s “Sweet Dreams” is an original standalone single, not a cover of the 1983 Eurythmics song. The band describe it as being about being deceived by the world around you and the safety found in blissful ignorance, and say it draws on all of their work across the past decade.
What is Mastodon’s “In The Ruins” about?
It’s about loss and rebuilding. The song was inspired by Hurricane Helene, which flooded bassist and vocalist Troy Sanders’ home in 2024 and destroyed his family’s belongings, displacing them for close to two years â a period that coincided with the band mourning guitarist Brent Hinds and drummer Brann Dailor’s mother. It’s the third single from Marrow Deep, out August 28 via Loma Vista Recordings.
When is Marilyn Manson’s new album out?
One Assassination Under God â Chapter 2 was released on August 14, 2026 via Nuclear Blast. It’s his thirteenth studio album, again co-written and co-produced with Tyler Bates, and runs nine tracks opening with “Unalive.”
When is Green Lung’s Necropolitan released?
September 11, 2026, via Nuclear Blast Records. “Black Magick Radio” is the third single from the nine-track album, which the band describe as a celebration of the occult lore and heavy music scene of their home city, London.
What is Skillet’s new EP called?
After The Storm. John Cooper has described it as a six-track EP, preceded by the singles “Scream” in July 2026 and “Lift Me Up” in August. A release date has circulated via pre-order listings but has not been officially confirmed by the band.
Six songs, one Friday. Which one’s getting the repeat plays from you â and what did we miss this week? Drop it in the comments. And keep it locked on the Loaded Radio stream, where all six are in rotation â follow Loaded Radio for daily rock and metal news.
The post Best New Metal Songs This Week: Mastodon, Wage War, Marilyn Manson & More appeared first on Loaded Radio.
