DEFENCES, courtesy.

DEFENCES and Drug Church bring the metal, Wild Pink and We Are Wolves bring us some joy, while The Backfires and StrateJacket show again that rock’s not dead.

Wild Pink, “The Fences of Stonehenge” — Artist John Ross’ message with this song describes a previous Wild Pink album as “synth-Americana,” which is a pretty good description of “The Fences of Stonehenge.” But, if you really think about it, synth-Americana is just early psychedelic rock, when folk rock went electric and started experimenting with new instruments. That makes this song, which he created for his project Wild Pink, one of the things I love most: A well-executed throwback.

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Drug Church, “Demolition Man” — I also love heavy guitars, such as those on this song. It’s rare to hear a core riff of a metal song that’s both heavy and with some speed to it. Usually it’s either high-pitched speed metal or plodding heaviness, and this splits the difference fantastically. I’d like to request more of this from the music world, please. This is Drug Church’s fourth time in Tuesday Tracks, which is as much as anyone else. But it’s the first time I’ve  done the picking.

We Are Wolves, “Súper Normal” — We Are Wolves describe their sound as “dystopian dance-rock,” which I don’t get. Dance-rock, sure, in a way. But the world is pretty dystopian and it does not remind me of this track. In fact, this track cheers me up from the dystopia. That’s great—a much better selling point. Montreal-based We Are Wolves are Alexander Ortiz and Vincent Levesque.

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The Backfires, “Brighter Lights” — We take a break from hard-to-describe outliers to give you a really good rock track. It has great riffs, great hook and really good vibe. The New York City quartet aimed to write a song that sounds like New York and came up with something that sounds like it came from that city circa 2003, when bands like the Bravery Yeah Yeah Yeahs where making their mark. it’s got the brashness of a band that’s listened to a lot of punk and the four-on-the-floor beat that gets you to the dance floor. It’s really good, you guys. You should listen.

DEFENCES, “Perish” — “Perish” is basically Linkin Park turned up to 11; everything is farther toward its end of the scale. The singing is softer and prettier, the screaming is harder, and the instrumentals are more metal with the bridge especially bordering on doom metal territory. The band’s frontwoman, Cherry Duesbury, is fantastic and my only complaint is that nobody told me about DEFENCES sooner.

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StrateJacket, “End Of Time” — Another from the “why didn’t any of you people tell me” file, this is off the upcoming second album from Sunnyvale’s own StrateJacket. I’m a little annoyed the band’s first album didn’t show up on my radar. Whether it’s intentional or good fortune, the band sounds like a young Green Day in the best way and I’m here for it. It has already broken the milestone of being on the soundtrack for a sports video game (“NHL24” from EA Sports) so it’s already well on its way. Like Drug Church, StrateJacket plays Aftershock Fest in Sacramento in October.

Danny’s pick: I really, really wanted to put “Brighter Lights” here, because this song’s been added to a couple of the playlists I’ve got going while I’m at work, but I have to stay true to myself and go with Defences. “Perish” is a great song and we’ll definitely be hearing more from the band in the future.

Follow publisher Daniel J. Willis at @bayareadata.press on BlueSky.