Andy Synn, Author at NO CLEAN SINGING

Andy Synn

RENUNCIATION – MAKE BABYLON GREAT AGAIN

Aug 182025

(Andy Synn sets out to see just how “great” the new album from Renunciation, out now, actually is)

Look, if you’d asked me before now I would have sworn blind that I reviewed Autelmorte, the second album from Renunciation, back in 2022.

But, as it turns out, I only managed to mention them as part of my regular end of year round-up (where it seems a couple of you also discovered them).

Which makes it doubly fortunate that I randomly stumbled across their third album, Make Babylon Great Again, towards the end of last week, as not only do I get to review it but I also get a chance to properly introduce you all to their shamelessly infectious amalgam of blast-driven, hyper-melodic Black Metal and fret-melting, pulse-pounding Tech Death.

BEST OF BRITISH: KING WITCH / SEA MOSQUITO / TECHNOLOGIST

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Aug 142025

(Andy Synn offers up another tasty platter of meaty British Metal for you all to enjoy)

It feels like it’s been ages since I last did one of these “Best of British” articles… though, in truth, it’s only been a couple of months.

But, whatever the reasons behind this slight delay (mostly due to the fact that I’ve been busier than usual recently, although it hasn’t helped that at least one of the albums/artists I was going to cover ended up coming to us for an album premiere, thus taking them out of contention… looking at you here Ba’al) I’m now once again set to present you with three more recent releases from the always verdant, ever versatile British Metal scene.

ASHEN – LEAVE THE FLESH BEHIND

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Aug 122025

(Andy Synn continues to be the biggest advocate of Australian Death Metallers Ashen here at NCS)

Let me ask you something… do you ever feel out of step with the (music) world?

I mean, I know we all do at some time, that’s a given, but every so often something comes along to really drive home to me how the bands I want to be bigger and more successful in the Metal scene (particularly the Death Metal scene) are rarely the ones who receive the biggest push.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a bit of Undeath, Gatecreeper, and 200 Stab Wounds now and then, but I’d be much happier to see the likes of Baest (whose new album I reviewed last week), Tribal Gaze (whose upcoming second album, Inveighing Brilliance, was just announced) and Ashen receive the same level of attention.

But, let’s face it, there’s probably a reason I’m not an A&R guy, since I’m demonstrably terrible at assessing which bands are going to be the most marketable and most successful… although I’ve still got a pretty big platform here, and if I can use it to get some more of you to jump onboard the Ashen bandwagon in advance of their upcoming second album (out next week on Redefining Darkness) then I’ll consider it a job well done.

BAEST – COLOSSAL

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Aug 052025

(Andy Synn has always been Baest‘s biggest cheerleader here at NCS, and that’s not about to change)

As the dude who’s been singing the praises of Danish death-dealers Baest (or Bæst, as I still prefer to call them) for a long time now, and who believes that they deserve just as much hype and attention as the Tomb Molds and Blood Incantations of the world, it was only natural for me to be the one to cover their upcoming fourth album (set for release 15 August on Century Media).

But, I must admit – having purposefully avoided all the pre-release singles so that I could experience (and, hopefully, enjoy) the whole record in one go – my first encounter with Colossal wasn’t quite what I expected.

Because it was way more… whisper it… fun than I ever would have imagined.

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (BUT SHOULDN’T)

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Aug 042025

(Andy Synn has four more recommendations from last month which you might have overlooked)

For the most part, when putting together these “Things You May Have Missed” articles, I try to cover as varied an array of artists and albums as one possibly can when they’ve limited themselves (to preserve their own sanity) to just four records.

But, as it happens, the four records I’ve chosen to highlight here today – a succulent slab of gnarly, narcotic Sludge, a harrowing howl of soul-scarring Black Metal, a prime cut of prodigiously proggy Death Metal, and an unexpectedly ambitious (if flawed) attempt at combining the metallic and the metaphysical – all have at least two things in common.

One, they’re all from bands with one-word names and, two, they all hail from the good ol’ US of A.

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 185): AZURE EMOTE

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Aug 012025

Recommended for fans of: The Monolith Deathcult, Sigh, The Project Hate

Some people get a little mad when you make too many (or, in some cases, any) references to other bands when writing an article like this.

But when you’re dealing with a group whose creative palette is as wide as this one – the band themselves cite, in addition to the artists mentioned above, the likes of Arcturus, Atheist, Edge of Sanity, Thy Catafalque, and many more, as influences – it’s pretty much unavoidable.

So, without further ado, allow me to introduce you to the Avant-Garde/Progressive “Death Metal” of Azure Emote, a band whose main songwriter is actually their vocalist/keyboardist (Mike Hrubovcak, ex-Monstrosity) which perhaps goes some way towards explaining their more unusual and unorthodox approach to extremity!

FERAL LORD – WUNJO

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Jul 302025

(Andy Synn takes a look at the new album from Feral Lord, out this Friday)

As you may know, it’s a common complaint of ours that there’s just so much music released each and every week/month/year that it’s impossible for us to keep up with it all, not matter how hard we try.

What you may not know, however, is that Jared Moran (aka Plaguehammer, aka Cave Ritual, aka Ionnonnisssz, etc) has been more responsible than most for us falling ever further behind the curve, such is the frequency and profligacy of his output.

Sure, we’ve covered a number of his projects before – including, but not limited to, the likes of Zvylpwkua, Acausal Intrusion, Hierarchies (whose debut album was released earlier this year), Vertebrae Fetish Totem (whose new record was also released a few months back, though we haven’t covered it yet), Out of the Mouth of Graves, and, of course, Feral Lord – but we’ve still barely scratched the surface of his discography.

That doesn’t mean we’re going to stop trying though… and with the upcoming release of Wunjo (though you can stream and purchase it right now) we’re able to add another successful review to our catalogue of criticism.

ARKHAAIK – UIHTIS

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Jul 282025

(Andy Synn rejoins the hunt with the new album from Arkhaaik)

One of the things we sometimes discuss amongst ourselves, here in the dark, dank depths of NCS Castle, is what the primary, prevailing “trend” of each year is.

And one thing I’ve noticed over the last seven-ish months is that – rather than being a straight up “Black Metal year” or a “Death Metal year” (or even a “Hardcore year”) – 2025 looks set to be a year defined more by the more unorthodox and unusual expressions from across the genre spectrum.

In some ways this, of course, makes it hard to identify a singular commonality which defines “the year in Metal” (so far, anyway)… but, from a different perspective, you might just say that this flexing and blurring of fluid genre boundaries is exactly what ties so many of the biggest and best albums of 2025.

And now we have this uniquely esoteric and ritualistically hypnotic hybrid of “blackened” Doom and deathly gloom courtesy of Switzerland’s Arkhaaik.

SHORT BUT SWEET: ABSOLUTISM / CAR BOMB / NEFAS

SHORT BUT SWEET 2 Responses »

Jul 232025

(Andy Synn presents three mind-warping metallic morsels to bruise and bludgeon your brains)

Some of you may have noticed (or maybe you didn’t?) that I didn’t post anything here last week, mostly because I was snowed under with work/life/band stuff and just couldn’t find the time (or the mental energy) to put my thoughts (as scrambled as they were) down in any coherent order.

To rectify that, however, I spent some time over the weekend putting together a bunch of reviews… although, wouldn’t you know it, pretty much all the bands I’ve ended up writing about have been so dizzyingly, discombobulatingly technical and intense that they’ve ended up scrambling my brain all over again.

So if you enjoyed Monday’s dissection of the upcoming new album from Sallow Moth and are looking for a few more meaty morsels to satisfy your cravings for chaotic complexity, then you’ll want to give all three of these EPs a listen too.

SALLOW MOTH – MOSSBANE LANTERN

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Jul 212025

(Andy Synn has the scoop on the continued re-emergence of Sallow Moth)

One of the most fascinating things in the animal kingdom, in my opinion at least, is the way in which caterpillars transform into butterflies (or moths).

After all, this is an organism which effectively spends half its life-cycle as one thing and the other half as something completely different… to the point where, if you didn’t know any better, you’d be hard-pressed to think of the two forms as belonging to the same species.

Not only that, but in between these two stages the caterpillar itself dissolves into a rich nutrient soup, becoming for a time neither one thing or the other as they undergo this startling metamorphosis.

Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that while a few fundamental structures do survive and carry over from one state of being to the next, studies have shown that certain memories, certain behaviours, can also survive the process, meaning that (to the extent that they are able) it might be said that butterflies (and moths) remember what it was like before they had wings.

And I can’t help thinking, while listening to the band’s new album (out 01 August) that Sallow Moth‘s own life-cycle has closely mimicked that of their name-sake.

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