The world is warming, the sun is back, and it’s time to get out into the garden and nature. Lately, I’ve been listening to a bunch of up-tempo, punchy tunes to head outside with — here’s six for the month of April!

Turtle

Island —

Renee

Christine

Let’s open this month with this percussive knee-slapper. Southern Gothic with just a hint of strings, this is an environmentally-conscious tune just in time for Earth Day later this month. The song starts off with some gentle plucking and soft vocal work, but that quickly escalates into punchy, half-shouting singing with punctuating clapping as she works through the chorus. That chorus is the highlight of the song, and really does a great job carrying the song forward.

If you like this song, I’d definitely recommend checking out more of her songs — she does a lot of Americana in this style, with songs about Appalachia and the Lehigh Valley that might be of particular interest to people here.

What Have We Become? — Lord of the Lost, IAMX

Lord of the Lost is a German gothic industrial band…kind of like Rammstein, but much slower and more atmospheric, with a lot of reverb. They’re also incredibly prolific, but somehow I only stumbled upon them a few months ago. This song, a single from 2025, feels like a pretty ringing condemnation of the state of the world today, and sometimes, that’s just what you need.

Musically, I’d recommend it honestly just for the transition when the operatic “this is a war” merges back in with the grinding, industrial background. Chills. The song gives just the right amount of time to rest and breathe between its peaks, which is a musical element that I both personally enjoy, and also respect: too many bands never rev themselves up adequately or, worse yet, employ a nonstop wall of sound that makes it too hard to pick out and enjoy individual elements.

Wings — ILUKA

How about a little pop — musically, at least. This song, by Australian singer ILUKA, is a trim, three-minute lyric-driven pop banger with some occasional profanity blended into defiant, clipped singing that manages to sound pretty unique.

It’s actually kind of interesting how much this shares in common, musically, with Turtle Island, as I think about it. There are a lot of differences, don’t get me wrong — but both utilize clapping as emphasis, unique vocal styles, and protest-driven lyrics. I will say that, at least for me, the melody and lyrics carry this song…it’s a little out of my usual wheelhouse with how pop-sounding it is, but the rest of the song is so good that I still love it.

Believer — Myrath

A new Myrath album just came out, and while I enjoyed it just fine, it made me miss the magic of this song, which came out years ago now. Myrath is a Tunisian band that falls into the incredibly good but inconsistent camp for me — when they’re fully on, like in this song, they’re fantastic. Unfortunately, they rarely achieve this level, for my ears, anyway.

Technically a metal band, Myrath has strong Prince of Persia vibes — they relish and emphasize a fusion of rock and metal elements with Middle Eastern instruments. This fusion of east and west is really cool to hear, both because it’s uncommon in the first place — let alone to be performed well — but also because Myrath is Tunisian. Tunis is a really fascinating place with an absurd amount of history, located along the north coast of Africa, southwest of Italy. Home to the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, they were one of Rome’s major rivals in antiquity, eventually succumbing through the three Punic Wars.

This is a region that isn’t really known internationally for its music — and, indeed, Myrath was the first Tunisian metal band signed to an international label. They’re very unique, and while not all of their music always hits for me, I highly recommend checking them out!

Wolf Totem — The Hu, Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach

Speaking of fusions of east and west, let’s take the opportunity to talk about this gem. The Hu is a Mongolian band that specializes in throat singing — if you’ve seen the recent Dune movies, you’ve probably encountered this for the Sardaukar. They also use Mongolian instruments like the morin khuur and tovshuur, and pair all of these techniques with folk metal.

This, then, is combined frequently with popular guest singers like Serj Tankian of System of the Down, Lzzy Hale of Halestorm, and Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach, who features in this song. The combination works shockingly well, with both halves bringing something completely unique to the other musically and blending them, somehow, into a cohesive whole.

H. H. Holmes (Gluttony) — American Murder Song

I’ve written about these theatrical guys before, and I was incredibly thrilled to discover that after a few years of silence, they are releasing a new album. This one focuses on notable American killers throughout history and pairs them with the seven deadly sins. So far we know Lizzy Borden as Wrath and this song, H. H. Holmes as Gluttony.

The subject matter is, of course, played up — a lot of the history surrounding Holmes and his “murder hotel” is fuzzy for a lot of reasons that I won’t get into here. But the song…the song is sublime. The two singers play off one another fantastically, alternating sections of the song until near the climax, when their respective personalities merge: the urbane innkeeper and the murderous ravener. Every tiny little bit of this song drips panache and style — from the cheeky historical references to the Chicago World’s Fair and the hotel’s guests, to the periodic punctuation of the bell chime, to the insanely upbeat, jaunty tune that comprises much of the latter half of the song.

It’s kind of hard to not bop along with the music, which makes the dichotomy with the horrific lyrics and subject matter all the more compelling. Absolutely delighted that these guys are still active.

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Arianna McKee is the Design and Editorial Page Editor at The Express.