From 18-minute opuses to Rammstein's return: here are this week's essential guitar tracks

Welcome to Guitar World’s weekly roundup of the musical highlights from the, erm, world of guitar. Every seven days (or thereabouts), we endeavor to bring you a selection of songs from across the guitar universe, all with one thing in common: our favorite instrument plays a starring role.

Rammstein – Zeit

What is it? Why, it’s the eagerly awaited return of everyone’s favorite German industrial-metallers. The title track from their forthcoming eighth studio album veers about as close to cinematic post-rock as Richard Z. Kruspe and Paul Landers have ever ventured, with big tremolo-picked crescendos between the tranquil piano verses.

Standout guitar moment: Rammstein have always been known for their crushing distorted tones, but they sound particularly gargantuan here. Proper tone nirvana stuff, this.

For fans of: Fear Factory, In Flames, Mono

– Michael Astley-Brown

The Black Keys – Wild Child 

What is it? After revisiting their Delta blues roots in thrilling fashion with the 2021 covers album, Delta Kream, The Black Keys are back with Dropout Boogie, their first new album of original material in three years. Wild Child is the album’s earworm of a lead single. 

Standout guitar moment: Though Wild Child is certainly no Delta blues homage a lá anything on Delta Kream, its stinging, vibrato masterclass of a solo shows that the Ohio duo’s formative blues influences are never too far away. 

For fans of: Portugal. The Man, Jack White, Wolfmother

– Jackson Maxwell

Josh Smith – Brand New 

What is it: The lead single from the blues guitar heavyweight’s newly announced album Bird of Passage, which will arrive early next month. With the backing of a fully stacked horn section, Smith harks back to old-school blues, and demonstrates a perfect pairing of classic forebear-inspired and more contemporary playing.

Standout guitar moment: The solo is Smith all over, showcasing his robust skills of navigation round the pentatonic box and the neighboring areas. There’s an abundance of classically blues bends and slides, too, though with that trademark Smith flair courtesy of some classy turnarounds and box-pushing ideas.

For fans of: Matt Schofield, Kirk Fletcher, Joe Bonamassa

– Matt Owen

Alexisonfire – Sweet Dreams of Otherness

What is it? The raucous first single from the Canadian post-hardcore heroes’ first new album in 13(!) years, Sweet Dreams of Otherness is a blockbuster take on mid-tempo alt-rock, with a chunky production and colossal overdrive tones.

Standout guitar moment: Could it be anything other than that swaggering main riff? We can already see the mosh pits forming.

For fans of: From First to Last, Underoath, Every Time I Die

– Michael Astley-Brown

Ibibio Sound Machine – 17 18 19

What is it? Based around a Nigerian playground chant, 17 18 19 is a delicious, synth-, horn- and percussion-powered jam that could get even the most uptight person onto the dancefloor. It serves as the fourth single from the London octet’s upcoming fourth album, Electricity.

Standout guitar moment: Alfred Kari Bannerman is a funk guitar master, a distinction he flaunts throughout this track. Especially tasty is the compressed wave of wah-soaked, rapid-fire rhythm work he unleashes in the song’s outro. 

For fans of: Hot Chip, Sons of Kemet, Songhoy Blues

– Jackson Maxwell

Tallah – Telescope

What is it? Nu-metal is back and it’s never sounded more extreme than at the hands of Pennsylvania’s Tallah, who have just dropped the first single from their sophomore full-length. Channeling early Slipknot at their most ferocious, Telescope is wall-to-wall drop-tuned riffage that simply does not let up.

Standout guitar moment: It’s hard to pick just one, but we sure love that one-note chug into the everything-but-the-harmonic drop just before the three-minute mark. Chills.

For fans of: Slipknot, Korn, Lotus Eater

– Michael Astley-Brown

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard – The Dripping Tap

What is it: An epic 18-minute Gizzard jam, and the first single to be lifted from the band’s upcoming double-album, Omnium Gatherum. As you’d expect from a track of that length, there’s a bounty of guitar work going on, starting from the charging opening riff to high-octane reprise of the bruising finale.

Standout guitar moment: The all-out three-minute fretboard throwdown that arrives around the seven-minute mark is, simply put, unmissable: it’s a melting pot of thick, wah-drenched wails, fuzzy licks and slinky harmonized motifs, all thrown together in a destructive flurry of notes.

For fans of: Tame Impala, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets

– Matt Owen

Vexes – Beyond the Sinking

What is it? With a 24-track double album on the way, the New Jersey alt-metallers have dropped a sonically expansive bruiser of a single, loaded with bulldozer riffs and sweeping soundscapes.

Standout guitar moment: We’re absolute suckers for a good slow bend in a heavy riff, and that opening salvo delivers in spades.

For fans of: Night Verses, Thrice, Skyharbor

– Michael Astley-Brown