West Virginia has a new pulse, and it sounds like collapsing machinery. Loose Ends enter the frame not with polite introductions, but with "Red Queen," a track that immediately asserts their claim as the heaviest act operating within the Mountain State’s borders. Unfurling out of the Chemical Valley, the band crafts a brand of deathcore that feels explicitly tied to industrial decay: dense, down-tuned, and built on an uncompromising framework of beatdown violence. Rather than relying on cinematic preambles or lingering atmospheric build-ups, "Red Queen" immediately drops into a dense wall of sonic pressure, establishing a standard of low-end weight that barely lets up for the duration of its runtime.
The track’s foundation rests on the dual-guitar attack of Shane Holeston and Michael King, whose riffing strikes a careful balance between rhythmic precision and raw, abrasive grit. Down-tuned to subterranean depths, the guitars drive the song forward through syncopated chugs and sudden, jagged tempo shifts. Beneath them, Ethan Stone’s bass fills out the low frequencies with a saturated, heavy-handed presence, ensuring the track hits with immediate physical impact. Drummer Caleb Johnson anchors the chaos, alternating between driving, high-tempo grooves and deliberate, crushing downtempo cadences. Together, the instrumental arrangement mimics the steady, unyielding momentum of heavy manufacturing, prioritizing spatial tension and groove over aimless, hyper-fast technicality.
At the center of this sonic wall is vocalist Harrison Burrows, whose performance gives "Red Queen" its distinct narrative edge. Burrows moves fluidly between deep, cavernous gutturals, throat-shredding mid-range roars, and sharp, panic-inducing highs. Rather than treating the vocal track as an afterthought layered over heavy instrumentation, his phrasing directly locks into the rhythm section, accentuating every snare crack and bass drop. Lyrically, the song navigates dark territory, exploring themes of tyrannical control, systemic entrapment, and absolute hostility. The lyrics steer clear of generic tropes, opting instead for direct, sharp-tongued delivery that gives the track’s heaviest moments a clear, cathartic purpose.
What elevates "Red Queen" above typical modern deathcore entries is its production balance. The mix preserves the band's raw, live energy while maintaining enough clarity for each instrument to cut through the wall of sound. The sub-bass hits land with clean, chest-rattling force, and the guitars retain their razor-sharp edge without dissolving into a blurry wash of high-gain noise. As the track progresses toward its final breakdown, Loose Ends pull back the tempo, layering syncopated riffs over a slow, punishing groove that brings the single to a climactic, suffocating finish.
With "Red Queen," Loose Ends deliver a focused, highly disciplined sample of Chemical Valley deathcore. It is a track engineered for maximum impact, proving that the group possesses both the technical control and the raw aggression needed to make a lasting impression in the heavy music landscape. For a band holding down West Virginia’s heaviest mantle, "Red Queen" serves as a formidable, relentless statement of intent.
Go listen to Mountain Mama Metal and give this track a spin:
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