Polyphia Feature On Spotify's Viral 50

Progressive math-rock band Polyphia have two songs on Spotify's Viral 50 playlist in the USA, with ABC featuring Sophia Black and Ego Death featuring Steve Vai capturing the #41 and #44 spots.

Of course: not high enough. Neither track appeared on the Australian version of the Spotify Viral 50 playlist.

Polyphia released their virtuosic fourth album, Remember That You Will Die, a little under two weeks ago and peaked at #72 on the ARIA Albums Chart. 

The band's guitarist, Tim Henson, recently argued that it's "not really cool to be in a metal band because they don't make any money" in an interview with Guitar.com. Criticising the current state of rock music, Henson also said, "Literally every guitar-centred thing is just solos on solos on solos. We've certainly done records that were solos on solos on solos, but between them, we actually had hooks."

About their collaboration with guitar god Steve Vai, he recalled" "In 2020, Steve asked us to open for him at his NAMM show. Afterwards, we went to the DiMarzio party and got drunk and asked him, 'Okay, would you be down to feature on one of our songs?' And he was like, 'Of course!' A couple of years later, we had the song and sent him an email. And here it is."

Two other rock songs appear on the playlist: Just Pretend by Knotfest Australia-bound Bad Omens at #5 - the tune is currently #7 in Australia on our Viral 50 roundup - and About You, the U2-influenced highlight from The 1975's latest album, Being Funny In A Foreign Language. The latter track is #30 on the Australian Viral 50 playlist.

About You is a new entry on the Viral 50; Being Funny was released almost a month ago.

Just Pretend, meanwhile, has a less surprising entry as the track recently went viral on TikTok. Heavy music fans used the video-sharing app to share the impact of emotional lyrics in rock music.

Check out the Viral 50 playlists in the US and Australia below.