Writ in Water: Top5 July 2026 Songs

Last July 5th I went to the Evil Live event here in Lisbon hoping to see Megadeth live one last time, but also to see Mastodon and Converge. In fact, I had no interest in the headliner, Marilyn Manson, not being a great fan of his music. Yet, when Megadeth cancelled at the last moment and me and two friends had to wait one hour for the headliner, I felt even compelled to leave the event, like many did, instead of waiting one hour for an artist I didn’t wish to see. But one of my friends persuaded me to stay, and I’m glad he did, for Marilyn Manson’s set was crushing from beginning to end, starting with “Nod If You Understand”, a song I spent the remainder of the month listening to.

For a while, I have been rediscovering bands from the nu metal heyday, and a friend recommended me American Head Charge’s The War of Art, and although most of the record reminds me of their contemporaries Chimaira, “Just So You Know” is a stand out in the record and I have been hooked on this song all month.

R.E.M is a band that I saw live many years ago and a band my father listens to a lot, and I have been listening to them over the years, with “The Great Beyond” being one of my favorite songs by them. It is a moody and sad song, but also very energetic, a song where the opposites bring out the best in the band. The video itself is amazing, made of collages between the band performing in increasingly insane situations and scenes taken from Man on the Moon, starring Jim Carrey, a movie I have seen sporadically over the years, whose mood is captured perfectly in this song.

Recently I decided to revisit Coldplay, and “Talk” is a song I loved when it first came out in 2005, a stand out song in X & Y, and one of my favorites by this British group. It is an interesting song about communication it also, to me, is a song about despair when one feels alone. The guitar riff taken from a Kraftwerk song, plus the keyboard ambiences, make “Talk” an amazingly soothing song.

In the end, we have “Brothers in Arms” by Dire Straits, an amazing song about war and companionship. The mood established by the keyboards with the amazing lead guitar work of Mark Knopfler is somber, sad and strangely comfortable like a blanket on a winter’s night (corny, I know).

All in all, July was a more hectic a melancholic month for me, but with great concerts, starting with the Evil Live Warm Up show with Okkultist, Cavalera and Trivium; Evil Live with Marilyn Manson, Mastodon and Converge; and finally Sunn 0))) (on a separate event). As always I leave below the Top5 playlist as well as the official websites of each artist (American Head Charge no longer have an active website, but have recently made their catalogue partially available on Spotify).