(Andy Synn shares some words of wisdom, and warning, about the duplicitous, dichotomous, and devastating new album from Defacement)
Everyone knows that the common trajectory for bands is for them to get mellower and more melodic – maybe a little proggier, here and there, but still more accessible overall – as their career goes on.
But what the hell would such a transition even sound like in the context of a band like Defacement?
(Andy Synn finds himself inspired once more – in more ways than one – by the music of Uprising)
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a bit of musical escapism, that’s for sure, and I love songs about gods and monsters, mysterious mountain kingdoms and crazy cosmic phenomena as much as anyone.
But there’s also a time and a place for music with a message as well, and since 2016 – wow, has it really been that long? – Uprising (AKA the solo project of Waldgeflüster‘s Jan van Berlekom) have been spreading their anarchic, anti-fascist and anti-authoritarian message of resistance and revolt through the medium of some absolutely killer, riff-driven and punk-propelled Black Metal.
And, for better or worse, that message still rings true on their new album, which was released just last week.
(Andy Synn makes some noise about the upcoming new album from Ceremony of Silence)
It’s a common refrain that certain genres – Metalcore, Deathcore, Djent (if we’re still using that word) – reached the point of oversaturation far too quickly, with the plethora of clones and copies often crowding out the more creative and/or innovative artists.
And while we can argue over the validity of this statement – like anything it’s a lot more nuanced, and a lot less black and white, than all that – I think we can all agree that you don’t hear this sort of rhetoric anywhere near as often when people talk about more overtly “underground” styles… even though it’s often just as true.
Case in point, the burgeoning “Dissodeath” genre (although, can we really still call it “burgeoning” when it began to coalesce into a distinct style over a decade ago?) has also rapidly reached the point of saturation, with the result being that – while most of the originators are still forging ahead and exploring the depths, and the limits, of their sound – it’s getting a little harder each month to really identify the stand-outs.
That’s not to say, however, that these stand-outs don’t exist, and with their new album (out tomorrow) Slovakia’s Ceremony of Silence look set to further establish themselves as one of the more notable acts in the ever-expanding disso-sphere.
(Andy Synn finds a paradoxical abundance of weirdness and creativity in the new album from Scarcity)
Very occasionally someone will ask us why we don’t cover more of the bigger, more mainstream-friendly, names in Metal. And our response to this is generally two-fold.
Firstly, it’s not like those sorts of acts actually need our attention or our endorsement, since they already get more than enough of that from other, slightly less discriminatory, outlets.
Secondly… well, after a certain point they all just kind of sound the same (although you could also say that about the annual wave of OSDM revivalists?), so it just doesn’t really seem worth us expending time and effort to cover a bunch of bands – all following the same trends and writing to the same formula – who we don’t really like, just for the clicks.
That being said, there are times when a band steps up with a new twist on a classic recipe which seems so obviously destined for massive success and acclaim that we can’t help but be caught up in all the hype along with everyone else.
Scarcity, however, are not that band.
(Andy Synn highlights three more examples of home-grown heaviness from the UK)
I was originally intending to finish and publish this particular article last week, but issues at work, combined with covering for Islander here while he was off attending Ascension Festival, meant things fell behind schedule.
I even thought I might be able to get it finished over the weekend, only to spend Friday afternoon/evening having fun axe-throwing (and then drinking) to celebrate my friend Chris’s birthday, followed by a night of beers and whiskey with (most of) the band on Saturday, and then a day spent having drinks (and doughnuts) with some of my fiancé’s friends on Sunday… so that didn’t happen either.
Still, better late than never, right? And I promise it won’t be as long until the next edition (for which I’ve already got 2 out of 3 bands confirmed).
(DGR dives over the event horizon of the new album from Spanish cyber-slam destroyers Wormed)
There was a sort of mad cackle that emerged from me after the first few runs of Wormed‘s newest issuance from the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy.
It was maybe after the third spin of Omegon that I couldn’t help but laugh, a semi-rueful one somewhere between Ralph Wiggum’s “I’m in danger!” chuckle and one that was in awe of the band somehow managing to unleash yet another disc of mind bending tempo shifts and instrumental destruction.
Honestly, what it comes down to is the question facing every writer when they’re handed a Wormed released (Omegon being my second) which is… “how in the unholy hell am I even going to describe this thing?“.
(Andy Synn recently scored an interview with Colin and Lev from Krallice – whose new album, Inorganic Rites, is out now)
Somehow, as the years have gone by, I’ve ended up being our “go to” guy when it comes to Krallice.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan (though perhaps not a typical one, as my favourite albums are Ygg Huur, Prelapsarian, and Psychagogue – not necessarily in that order) but I’ve not exactly been shy about being critical about what I think does and doesn’t work when it comes to the band’s increasingly experimental output during my time here at NCS.
That’s the thing with making music of a more “experimental” bent though – it’s not necessarily all going to work, nor will it necessarily give you the results you were aiming for even when it does.
But, like any good bunch of sonic scientists, Krallice have clearly learned something from each and every experiment (especially over the last several releases, which have found them flirting with more and more synth, drone, and ambient elements), with the result being that the band’s new album, Inorganic Rites truly feels like the culmination of everything they’ve been working on for the last 4-5 years.
It is, perhaps, the most “cinematic” of all the group’s records to date, successfully achieving (despite what its title may suggest) an unexpectedly organic balance between the many different elements of the band’s signature blend of kaleidoscopic mathemetallic chaos, as well as an almost seamless fluidity which makes it possibly the band’s most accessible work – despite its inherent darkness – in a long, long time.
So when the band themselves reached out to us to ask if we’d like to talk to them about the record – and not, as I first assumed, to yell at me for what I wrote about Mass Cathexis – you know we jumped at the chance, with the results of my conversation with drummer Lev Weinstein and vocalist/guitarist/engineer Colin Marston now being made public for the first time.
(Andy Synn takes a look at the new album from Brazilian Prog-Death dynamos Piah Mater, out now)
We are, each of us, the sum total of many different things.
I am both my father and my mother, and through them their parents, grandparents, and so on, down through the years.
At the same time, I am also the totality of my choices, my experiences, and a variety of unpredictable epigenetic factors which combine to form my sense of “self”.
But we are also, all of us, more than these things.
As are Piah Mater.
(DGR‘s been killing some brain cells with Werewolves again, whose new album is out July 12)
I’ve discussed this before, and our cohort Andy has also brought this up a few times, but the idea of listening to hundreds upon hundreds of albums a year – as if the larger the number the more impressive it is as a metric of how clever and cultured you are – has always bit at my side a little bit.
Of course, it’s worth noting that I am a fool with bad management skills, so it is therefore feasible that you could actually have listened to 3-4 times as many albums as there are days in the year – and in my younger days I too, would’ve bragged the same.
But focussing on the numbers makes things kind of ephemeral and disposable doesn’t it? As if all music were just a fleeting experiences designed only for your immediate satisfaction and nothing else.
Surely, the artist who has strived for months over songs, figuring out transitions, how to layer and arrange things, chased tones for hours, before finally settling on the specific composition being played before you deserves more than to be added as just one more point on an infinitely increasing bar on a graph?
Early in my writing I used to be proud of the fact that I was on time (or early) with many albums. But nowadays that’s less the case, as I like to deep dive into things and absorb the release for everything it has to offer.
I still do land the occasional early or on-time review but much like a baseball player slowly coming off of ‘roids, those stats are cratering and cratering hard. Everything instead finds room when the olde’ brain machine manages to turn enough cogent thought into something to discuss with you, the reader, when it comes to a new album. I care more about the discussion and experience of a release than I do the timeliness of it.
Which brings us to Die For Us… where absolutely none of this bullshit applies.
(Andy Synn bows down before the timeless Black Metal magic of Vimur)
Now, according to official sources, the new album from US Black Metal warriors Vimur is scheduled for release this Friday.
But, apparently, it’s already available digitally via the group’s own Bandcamp page (with physical copies to follow via Avantgarde Music shortly).
So, here’s a little review to help clear up any confusion and encourage you all to check it out.