Andy Synn, Author at NO CLEAN SINGING

Andy Synn

MIND MOLD – EROSIVE

Sep 162024

(Andy Synn highlights one of his favourite new discoveries of the year)

One thing I’m sure you’ll notice, if you spend any amount of time online, is how often people complain that “there’s no good new music any more“.

They’re wrong, of course, but it occurs to me that there’s a cruel (and dispiriting) irony to the fact that the proliferation of streaming services, which should – in theory ay least- grant their users access to a seemingly endless and almost infinitely varied array of new artists and albums, has ultimately, through the use of increasingly solipsistic and artificially-unintelligent algorithms, ended up stifling a lot of peoples’ ability, or willingness, to actively go out and look for new music themselves.

If you’re reading this, however – congratulations, you’re probably not one of those people.

And your reward for that is that you get to listen to the disgustingly doomy, dissonance-drenched Death-Sludge of Canada’s Mind Mold and their new album, Erosive.

THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER – SERVITUDE

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Sep 122024

(Today our man Andy Synn steps up to tackle one of the most difficult reviews he’s ever written)

How exactly, let me ask you, does one even begin to talk about – let alone judge – an album like this?

Let me be clear, the untimely demise of the band’s infamous (and seemingly irreplaceable) frontman Trevor Strnad hit a lot of us here at NCS very hard – hell, I was the one who volunteered to pen a few words in tribute after his passing – but it obviously hit his bandmates harder than almost anyone, and I don’t think anyone would have blamed them if they’d chosen to hang up their spurs in the aftermath.

But, as it turns out, giving up wasn’t in the cards for these Detroit death-dealers, who are set to solidify their return with the release of their tenth album – the first one to feature long-time guitarist (and last-remaining original member) Brian Eschbach taking over as the group’s vocalist, as well as the recording debut of the newly-formed guitar-duo of Brandon Ellis and the returning Ryan Knight – in just over two weeks from now.

With all that in mind then, perhaps the best thing I can do with this review is simply set your expectations appropriately, as while many (if not most) of us may have been hoping that the band’s big comeback would be an unqualified success and an unparalleled triumph over tragedy… the truth is that Servitude is not that.

Or maybe it is. Maybe I’m looking at it wrong. Maybe its very existence – it’s still a good album, just not a great one, after all – is enough of a triumph on its own… especially considering that it almost didn’t happen at all!

KANONENFIEBER – DIE URKATASTROPHE

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Sep 102024

(Andy Synn goes back to the front with the new album from German fusiliers Kanonenfieber)

War… war never changes.

And neither, in some ways, do Kanonenfieber, whose long-awaited and highly-anticipated second album, Die Urktatastrophie (transl. “The Original/Primal Catastrophe”) comes out next week (September 20, to be exact).

And yet… and yet… those of us who’ve been marching alongside the band over the years, slogging through the mud and blood of Menschenmühle (2021), then going on to join the Yankee Division to fight against Der Füsilier (2022), only to find ourselves staring deep into the abyss as a U-Bootsmann (2023), will know from experience that although the band (strictly speaking a solo project, I know) may not have changed, their tactics have definitely, albeit subtly, evolved with each new engagement.

In particular, there’s been a slow but steady shift in focus to incorporate more of Death Metal’s riff-centric heft and rhythmic hookiness with each and every release, with the result being that the group’s career has, up to a point at least, followed a similar arc to their Dutch cousins (and similar WWI scholars) God Dethroned.

But whereas the latter’s most recent album ended up falling a little (or, more accurately, a lot) short of achieving its objectives, the anti-war anthems of Die Urkatastrophe have no such problems hitting their target.

THE HOWLING WIND – THROUGH THE EYES, PAST THE SUN

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Sep 092024

(Andy Synn is ready to be swept off his feet again by The Howling Wind)

Look, by now I’m sure we’re all aware of the big surprise revelation of last week… that’s right, I’m talking about the unexpected, world-shaking return of ~~Linkin Park~~ ~~Pyrrhon~~ The Howling Wind!

Sure, it’s only been two years since their last release – 2022’s Oak EP – but it’s been eleven years since the duo of Tim Call and Ryan Lipynsky actually created a full-length album together (with 2019’s Shadow Tentacles being a solo effort by Lipynsky under the THW moniker).

So, with that in mind, the pair’s new album, Through the Eyes, Past the Sun, has a lot to live up to.

NORNA – NORNA

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Sep 042024

(Andy Synn has a new favourite artist/album he needs to share with you, in the form of Norna)

The phrase “Post Metal” is one of those genre terms which doesn’t necessarily have an agreed definition.

Some people use it to refer mostly to what are, in essence, Post-Rock bands who’ve decided to use certain more metallic elements (usually meaning a more heavily distorted guitar tone along with the occasional burst of blastbeats) while others reserve it for bands who exist on the more atmospheric end of the Sludge/Hardcore spectrum (most of the big names in the scene started out like this, for example).

For Swedish trio Norna, however, their approach to “Post-Metal” is all about attempting to refine things down to their raw essence, beneath and beyond the flashy technicality and mindless machismo so often still associated with the genre, to achieve the Platonic ideal of pure auditory weight and distortion-driven emotion.

And while their debut didn’t quite manage to achieve this – admittedly impossible – task, the band’s self-titled second album comes closer than most to achieving artistic apotheosis in molten metallic form.

NAILS – EVERY BRIDGE BURNING

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Sep 032024

(Wil Cifer reviews the new album by Nails, released August 30th by Nuclear Blast)

Thankfully, during the 8 years since You Will Never Be One of Us, Todd Jones just released a few splits and 7-inches rather than work on the issues spurring the anger that gives “Imposing Will” its feral menace.

The new album finds them moving in a more Hardcore direction – though the drumming has a more Slayer-like precision due to the presence of Carlos Cruz behind the kit – with Jones joined by a new line-up this time around which includes Andrew Solis (Despise You) playing bass and Shelby Lermo (Ulthar) on guitar.

That being said, the main influence of Grindcore lingers on in the way these raging riff fests get crammed and bullied into a savage series of sub-two-minute bursts of brutality.

OCEANS OF SLUMBER – WHERE GODS FEAR TO SPEAK

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Sep 032024

(Andy Synn dives deep into the new Oceans of Slumber album, out next week)

It is, quite frankly, borderline criminal that we haven’t all helped make Oceans of Slumber a bigger commercial and critical success.

Sure, the group has had issues with maintaining a consistent line-up, and they’ve yet to create an absolute classic that’s consistently awesome all the way through, but the highlights of their back-catalogue – combining the always stunning vocals of Cammie Beverly and the punishing percussive power of her husband Dobber with a visceral and vibrant variety of progressive riffs, cinematic synths, and lithe, limber bass-lines – have always, in my opinion at least, outnumbered their occasional musical missteps.

Hell, the gloomy Southern Gothic glamour of 2022’s Starlight & Ash could – and should – have led to some serious mainstream crossover success… but somehow the band still didn’t get their due.

Well, it now looks like all that rejection (ok, it’s not like the group are total unknowns by any means, they just have yet to receive the push they properly deserve) has come home to roost as, for better or worse (but mostly for better), it’s clear that Where Gods Fear to Speak is the sort of album that was written solely for the band’s own enjoyment and artistic fulfilment.

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (BUT SHOULDN’T)

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Sep 012024

(Andy Synn somehow manages to pick just four albums from an overloaded August to talk about)

I feel like August was even more jam-packed with new releases than any other month this year so far… right?

And I don’t just mean all the “big” names – of which there were several – I’m talking about all the cool, more underground records and releases which came out during the last 31 days.

There was the intricate, immersive Prog-Death of Moonloop and the intense, in-your-face Deathcore of To The Grave… the disgustingly dark and devastating double-team of Teeth and Pneuma Hagion… as well as rites, both Vile and Modern in the form of Senescence and Endless.

And then there was the unquantifiable, uncompromising new album from Uniform – which I hope, one day, to get round to reviewing (just as soon as I’ve got my head around it properly) – plus several more which I might just end up covering separately at some point.

Until then, however, please enjoy this genre-crossing look back at the last month!

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 174): OXYGEN DESTROYER

THE SYNN REPORT 3 Responses »

Aug 312024

Recommended for fans of: Vader, Goatwhore, Revocation

Sometimes a band and their theme just go so well together – think Slugdge and their mollusc-worshipping metallic magic, or Sulphur Aeon and their obsessive Lovecraftian occultism – that you can’t ever imagine them doing, saying, or singing about anything else.

Such is the case with Seattle’s own Oxygen Destroyer whose monstrous sound – a ravenous hybrid of Death, Black, and Thrash Metal, designed to take your breath away – has become totally inseparable from their monstrous subject matter.

So prepare yourselves, it’s time for a rampage.

AMIENSUS – RECLAMATION, PART 2

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Aug 282024

(Andy Synn closes the circle with his review of part 2 of Amiensus‘s new double-album, out Friday)

There is, of course, no way to talk about Reclamation, Part 2 without considering it in the context of its already-released predecessor – the two of them forming both sides of a singular (in both senses of the word) coin.

That doesn’t mean, however, that Part 2 is incapable of standing on its own – far from it – it’s just that the group’s decision to release Reclamation in two parts, almost a full four months apart, offers us an opportunity to reassess the latter while analysing the former at the same time.

So, let us begin, shall we?

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