Andy Synn, Author at NO CLEAN SINGING

Andy Synn

ACRANIUS – MERCY DENIED

Feb 162022

(Andy Synn lays down the gauntlet with the new album from Germany’s Acranius)

Sometimes, to really understand how a band got to where they are, you have to take a close look back at where they came from.

In the case of Germanic brutes Acranius this is particularly revealing, as in hindsight it’s clear that 2017’s Reign of Terror marked a major turning point away from their more Slam-influenced early work towards what’s best described as more of a “Brutal Deathcore” sound.

Sure, there were still several recognisable elements still hanging over from their first two albums – especially the slamtastic snare and the largely unintelligible gurgling monotone of the vocals – but it was clear even then that the band were in the process of becoming something else… something which has finally achieved its final, fearsome form on Mercy Denied.

LIFESICK – MISANTHROPY

Album Reviews 3 Responses »

Feb 142022

(Andy Synn gets bruised and bloody with the new album from Denmark’s Lifesick)

Here’s a question for you – are Danish misanthropes Lifesick a Death Metal band playing Hardcore, or a Hardcore band playing Death Metal?

It’s ok, you don’t have to answer straight away. Just give their new album (which was released last Friday) a listen and let me know once you’re done picking your teeth up off the floor.

CULT OF LUNA – THE LONG ROAD NORTH

Album Reviews 6 Responses »

Feb 092022

(Andy Synn takes a journey with Cult of Luna on The Long Road North, out Friday on Metal Blade)

Like I said in my review of the new Immolation album yesterday, writing about a band with a long and much-loved career comes with several inherent complications.

In the case of Cult of Luna, the band are so beloved by their fanbase that it’s hard to get people to admit that they’re not infallible, as I found out when I suggested that both their last two releases, 2019’s A Dawn to Fear and last year’s The Raging River EP, had some significant (although not insurmountable) flaws.

The thing is, I’ve always tried to be as honest and objective as I can be with all my reviews – while acknowledging, of course, that true objectivity is an impossible goal – which means providing as clear and as complete an impression of the music, its highs and its lows, its good points and its bad points, and it seems to me like it would be doing the band a disservice to treat them any differently than anyone else.

So let me state this clearly – The Long Road North is not a perfect album. Nor is is “the best album of the band’s career”, as I’ve seen it described elsewhere (in some cases seemingly before they’d even heard it). But it is still, for all that it occasionally loses its way, a road well worth taking.

IMMOLATION – ACTS OF GOD

Album Reviews 5 Responses »

Feb 082022

(Andy Synn passes judgement on the new album from Immolation, out Feb 18 on Nuclear Blast)

If there’s one thing we’re known for here at NCS it’s our focus on celebrating and supporting the underdogs.

So when the promo for Acts of God, by up-and-coming New York death-dealers Immolation dropped into our inbox I quickly snatched it up, as I’m all about giving struggling young bands a helping hand.

What’s that?

Eleven albums, you say?

Over thirty years as a band?

Well, that changes everything…

BEST OF BRITISH: KUROKUMA / TORCHBEARER / VENOM PRISON

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 3 Responses »

Feb 022022

(Andy Synn once again turns his attention to a trilogy of new albums from the UK)

It’s kind of weird being part of the UK Metal scene… but also somewhat apart from the UK Metal scene.

On the one hand, it means I don’t always get to know what’s going on, who’s popular, or which artists/albums I should be covering.

On the other… it’s also kind of freeing precisely because means there’s no one telling me who or what I should be writing about (for whatever reason) and no pressure to try and fit in with the crowd.

So while today’s edition of “The Best of British” covers a good mix of styles – Sludge, Hardcore, Death Metal – and runs the gamut from the relatively unknown to “the next big thing”, the truth is that, as much as I like to think I have a positive impact, these articles aren’t really written for “the scene”. Or even for the bands themselves.

No, they’re written for our readers, first and foremost. Because there’s a lot of really good Metal coming out of the UK these days, and I don’t want them to miss it!

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 142): PLEBEIAN GRANDSTAND

THE SYNN REPORT 3 Responses »

Jan 312022

Recommended for fans of: Celeste, Dodecahedron, Imperial Triumphant

Let’s get this out of the way – Plebeian Grandstand‘s fourth album, Rien ne suffit was one of the best releases of last year, and the only reason it didn’t make an appearance in my “Critical Top Ten” was because… well, I only had so much space, and I’d already included several Black Metal (or Black Metal related) selections!

However, that raises an oft-contentious follow-up question – are Plebeian Grandstand a Black Metal band?

Quite a few people would say no – some because they believe that the band’s unique brand of enigmatic extremity lacks the “purity” of true Black Metal, others because they feel like calling them “Black Metal” is actually too restrictive, and fails to properly capture who the band are and what they do.

They’re both kind of right, to be honest, because while Black Metal is undeniably a massive part of their identity, their sound is also a wickedly harsh hybrid of Hardcore, Mathcore, Grindcore, and Sludge… along with an increasingly prominent electro-industrial undercurrent which has only added to the growing volatility of the band’s sound as they’ve mutated and evolved.

Luckily for you, you don’t just have to take my word for it, as this particular edition of The Synn Report gives you access to all four of the group’s albums, meaning you can make up your own minds!

CELESTE- ASSASSINE(S)

Album Reviews, Reviews 1 Response »

Jan 262022

(Andy Synn sharpens his knives for this incisive review of the new album from Celeste, out Friday on Nuclear Blast)

We have all long been fans of France’s Celeste here at NCS – myself in particular, as I’ve been an avid follower and collector of their music ever since their first album – and we’re clearly not alone in that, as the band’s profile has risen, slowly but surely, with each new release, culminating in this, their “major” label debut.

Of course, changing labels hasn’t actually changed the band themselves, and you’ll be pleased to know that Assassine(s) is just as aggressive, atmospheric, and addictively abrasive as the rest of their catalogue.

It does, however, raise a familiar quandary… how exactly does one categorise a band like Celeste?

Looking back over their career thus far you can see that they’ve been called a lot of different things over the years – Black Metal, Post Hardcore, Blackened Sludge, Post Metal, and so forth – none of which are necessarily wrong, even if they’re not totally right either.

But, a rose by any other name, right? After all, they’re still the same band, no matter how they’re tagged, and it seems to me that what you choose to call them says a lot more about you, the listener, than it does about them.

And, if that’s the case, then it’ll be interesting to see exactly what this review says about me once I’ve done writing it.

SLOWBLEED – THE BLAZING SUN, A FIERY DAWN

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC No Responses »

Jan 242022

(Andy Synn would like to tempt you all with a taste of the new album from Slowbleed)

We all have our guilty pleasures, right?

Case in point, I’ve recently been enjoying a fun little show by the name of Dishmantled (hosted by the inimitable Titus Burgess) which tasks two chefs to recreate a specific dish… after it’s been blasted at them by a cannon.

It’s a ridiculous premise, obviously, but what makes it even more ridiculous is that the contestants are blindfolded during the first stage of the competition, meaning they can’t see what’s being blasted at them, they can only touch and taste whatever they manage to scrape off the walls.

There’s lots of reasons I like the show (it’s short, undemanding, and undeniably entertaining), but it also reminds me of what writing about music can feel like sometimes – blindly groping around trying to guess what different influences contribute to a band’s sound in the hope that you can then communicate this to your audience.

So, in that spirit, please join me on an audio-culinary journey as I try to suss out exactly what ingredients make up this particularly piquant platter of meaty Metallic Hardcore from Californian crossover crew Slowbleed.

SOM – THE SHAPE OF EVERYTHING

Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Reviews 2 Responses »

Jan 202022

(Andy Synn provides another well-deserved exception to our usual rules with the new album from SOM)

What with it being a new year, I suppose now is as good a time as any for a little history lesson.

Long story short, back when Islander (and his two collaborators, whose names have long-since been stricken from the records in some sort of pseudo-Stalinist purge) first started this site the name was intended as something of a two-fingered salute to all those bands who, whether pushed into it by their management or simply because they were desperate to be popular, jumped on the “harsh verse, clean chorus” bandwagon.

Unsurprisingly, a lot of people – including our beloved overlord – were pretty pissed off that so many bands were willing to sacrifice their integrity and identity just to fit in with current trends… and so NoCleanSinging was born.

Of course, the name has always been somewhat tongue-in-cheek, and there’s no actual rules about what sorts of vocals that we’re actually allowed (or forbidden) to include… heck, if you take a minute to look at just some of the bands we’ve covered over the years – Chrome Waves, Katatonia, Klone… Brutus, Borknagar, Boss Keloid… Protest The Hero, A Swarm of the Sun, Junius… – you might even conclude that we actually love clean singing. At least when it’s done well.

And it’s the latter name from that list which leads us into the album I want to talk about today, as while SOM is made up of several ex-Junius members (along with musicians from Caspian and Constants) and shares several sonic similarities with that group, their second album, The Shape of Everything, finds the band stepping out of that particular shadow and fully coming into their own.

SWAMP LANTERN – THE LORD IS WITH US

Album Reviews, Reviews 4 Responses »

Jan 192022

(Andy Synn would like to enlighten you about the new album from Washington’s Swamp Lantern)

One of the great joys involved in being a music writer – and I’m sure many, if not most, if not all, of my fellows would agree – is discovering a band and then watching them grow into their full potential.

Case in point, when I reviewed Swamp Lantern‘s debut back in 2020 I immediately felt that this was a band who had “it”, even if they didn’t quite have a handle on exactly what “it” was.

Their second album, however, takes that hard-to-define x-factor and improves on it in pretty much every single way, offering up an even more refined and robust version of what was already a pretty riveting sound, with a stronger sense of identity, a clearer creative vision, and a more instinctive grasp of flow and dynamic.

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