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As Deftones‘ Chino Moreno once sang, early September is synonymous in the UK with going “back to schooooool.” Sad times for those still in full-time eduction – best days of your lives, though, just wait ’til you see what lies ahead kids – but a time of sweet, sweet celebration for stressed and exhausted parents from Bellshill to Belfast.

But we digress. Before bringing you this week’s beautifully curated crop of metallic bangers, it is both our pleasure and our solemn duty to bring you the winners of last week’s vote.

Bigly love was shown to NWOBHM standard-bearers Saxon, who claimed a [level] 42 per cent of the vote for the aptly-titled Gods Of Thunder. Respect is due also to Hansen and Evanescence who landed in the silver and bronze medal positions. Well done everyone, and remember, it’s the taking part that counts, as school teachers regularly lie.

Moving on then, and as ever we’ve got a diverse selection for your listening pleasure this week, from a “pummelling” surprise release by the new-look Slipknot to a mighty slab of retro-metal from Napalm Death bass bod Shane Embury’s Absolute Power, featuring guest vocals from former Judas Priest vocalist Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens.

Check out the selection below, and don’t forget to vote for your favourite!

Suicide Silence – Graceless

It’s been a few years, but Suicide Silence are gearing up to release their follow-up to Remember… You Must Die in November. Graceless is the title track from their eighth full-length and the California quintet deliver an inhuman slice of deathcore in under two minutes. No messing about here.

Miss May I – Highbrow Thieves

Next month, Miss May I return with their new album, No Place For Me. Picking up where 2022’s Curse of Existence left off, the Ohio four-piece manage to sound inspirational while digging you in the gut with waves of compelling chug. Movie buffs will enjoy the Quentin Tarantino shout-out at the beginning of the track too.

Slipknot – Arsenal

It feels weird to think that Slipknot are now an eight-piece, but Arsenal marks their first new song since the surprise exit of DJ Sid Wilson this summer. Delivering the aural equivalent of a clenched fist to your chops, the Des Moines mob are in a combative mood with this latest offering. “It’s like we’ve got everyone by the hair and we’re just going, ‘Go, Go, Go!’” says vocalist Corey Taylor, seemingly comparing it to a dirty fight between rival comprehensive schools.

From First To Last – They Said Your Ghost Was A Promise

Earlier this summer, this Tampa post-hardcore five-piece introduced their new vocalist Lil Lotus with a brand new song, Your Name In Red Ink, taken from their forthcoming release We Were Bleeding Anyway. Here’s another thumper from the six-track EP. One YouTube user was prompted to comment: “best accidental click ever”. They’re right. There’s far, far worse stuff you could accidentally click on, believe us.

Ando San – Hype Man / Triggas (featuring Mazbou Q)

Fans of President will recognise Ando San from his guest spot on the track Hate Figure. For the uninitiated, he’s the latest addition to the Sumerian family, and deftly blends a delicious metal crunch and hip hop. Here’s a double helping from the San Fernando Valley rhyme purveyor, which draws inspiration from Darkthrone’s seventh album Ravishing Grimness. “I thought it would be cool to start the song with a black metal vibe and then lead into a heavy beat.” Catch him on tour with Don Broco later this month.

Absolute Power – Needs Must When The Devil Drives

Here’s an idea for mathematician Hannah Fry: using a big equation, work out just how Shane Embury has managed to write and record so many albums for his side projects as well as play bass for Napalm Death. It can’t be done, even with one of those scientific calculators that no-one could quite work out how to use at school.

After releasing his self-titled debut and another Dark Sky Burial album, he’s back with his metal band Absolute Power. This time, he’s joined by former Judas Priest vocalist Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens on the track Needs Must When The Devil Drives. Verdict: it has more gallop than the 2.30 at Uttoxeter.

Spiritbox – Mourning

Canadian metalcore quartet Spiritbox surprise-released this soaring standalone track ahead of their European tour which begins in Glasgow on September 12. Once their live commitments are out of the way, maybe it’s time to get on with recording the follow-up to Tsunami Sea?

Silvertomb – Graves in the Sky

Now the dark nights are beginning to draw in and skies are turning grey, here’s Silvertomb with a song to suit the bleakest of moods. Featuring Type O Negative alumni Kenny Hickey and Johnny Kelly, plus Inhuman’s Hank Hell, Agnostic Front’s Joseph James and Empyreon’s Aaron Joos, Graves in the Sky rumbles with an Ozzy-style vocal in the mix. Look out for their album The Interpretation of Nightmares in November.

When Talk Talk delivered their third album Spirit Of Eden, it took their record label by surprise. Asked to make it more pop-friendly to match their earlier successful output, leader Mark Hollis refused. The album didn’t do well on release in 1988 – but its stature has continued to grow since then, as Prog argued in 2009.

The term ‘progressive’ has come to denote – at least in the minds of the unthinking mainstream critics and consumers – a genre or style, something to do with sparkly capes and impenetrable lyrics about wizards.

Actually, most bands are progressive in their way, trying to move their music forward. It’s just that they don’t get the label because they don’t sound like King Crimson in 1969.

Talk Talk are a prime example of a band who progressed; a band who made a great leap forward and changed everything.

In interviews, frontman Mark Hollis always spoke about Miles Davis and Bela Bartok, though it was hard to square his professed influences with the happy-clappy synth pop that his band made.

Songs like My Foolish Friend and It’s My Life were beautifully crafted pop artefacts, but nobody at the time saw Talk Talk as anything other than the band you got into while Duran Duran were on a hiatus.

Talk Talk were successful Smash Hits and Top Of The Pops mainstays. Along with Culture Club, Tears For Fears and A Flock Of Seagulls, they were part of a second British invasion of the US.

Their big hit, 1986’s Life’s What You Make It, and the album The Colour Of Spring showed a new maturity as well as sustained Top 10 status. Their parent label EMI gave them carte blanche to record the follow-up: unlimited time and money with minimal interference. The result of a year spent in the studio was Spirit Of Eden, a monumental work whose iconic status continues to grow.

Constructed from hours of improvisations – sometimes they played in complete darkness to get the mood right – and edited by Hollis and producer Tim Friese-Greene, Spirit Of Eden bears little resemblance to the band’s pop incarnation. Plaintive Miles Davis-like trumpet solos are layered on top of glacially slow ambient washes; Hollis’ distinctive voice is the only thing with any seeming continuity with the band’s previous sound.

On hearing a cassette of the album, EMI panicked as executives saw their fat bonus cheques evaporate. They asked Hollis to replace some songs and rerecord others. He refused. The album sold poorly, partly because of the challenging nature of the material, but also because the band didn’t tour in support of it. It was, Hollis, admitted, impossible to play live.

In retrospect Spirit Of Eden and its almost-as-good follow-up Laughing Stock started a sea change in music – along with US rockers Slint – paving the way for a new post-rock underground movement that includes the more experimental side of Radiohead as well as Chicago-school bands like Tortoise.

Hollis, after one brilliant solo album, retired from music, and lived life away from the spotlight up until his death in 2019. But his legacy lives on through Spirit. Now regarded as a classic, it just took the rest of the world a little while to catch up.