AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): NUG — “ALTER EGO”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
Aug 102020
 

 

Nug’s new album Alter Ego, which we’re premiering today, is a dimorphic creature, a union of beauty and the beast. This Ukrainian band’s formulation of progressive and post-metal is capable of both transporting your head into sunlit clouds and also clubbing them through the pavement and deep into the mantle below. You could also think of their hybrid of obliteration and wonder, of pile-driving destruction and head-swirling dreams, as the workings of a wondrous machine that constantly morphs — from an earth-ruining demolition device into a spaceship venturing through head-spinning wormholes to reveal astonishing vistas of vast, blazing nebulae.

These extremes of sound — which are soft and loud, breathtakingly intense and sublimely mesmerizing, bewildering and brazen — might seem to occupy distant and opposing points on an axis, but Nug fold the axis in on itself, not merely juxtaposing the extremes but laying them on top of each other with gripping and exhilarating consequences. Continue reading »

DECARABION: “BASTARD SON OF DIVINITY”

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Aug 072020
 

 

(We present Vonlughlio’s review of the new album by the Colombian band Decarabion, which is out now on Unmatched Brutality Records.)

Hope all you readers are well and, as always, I’m wishing all the best to all. As you probably already know, yours truly is a big fan of Brutal Death Metal (duh!). I was having a conversation the other day with a friend (Abhay) for his upcoming podcast in which we discuss the genre and other different scenes I love.  One of the subjects was the Colombian scene and how many great bands have come from that country to give us such great BDM.

This time around I would like to talk about the debut album Bastard Son of Divinity by the Colombian newcomers Decarabion, which was released on August 4 via Unmatched Brutality Records. Before saying anything else, this is a great representation as to why I love Colombian BDM. This record crushes from the moment you press play until the end. Continue reading »

TERMINAL NATION: “HOLOCENE EXTINCTION”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Aug 062020
 

 

(On August 7th 20 Buck Spin will release a new album by Arknasas heavyweights Terminal Nation, and in anticipation of that calamitous event Andy Synn wrote this review.)

I don’t know how things are where you are right now, dear reader, but here in the UK people are finding lots of different ways to cope with the uncertainty and upheaval caused by this goddamned pandemic.

Personally I’ve been lucky enough to be able to ride things out (so far at least) with relatively little disruption, and right now my plan is simply to go to the Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for this all to blow over.

In the meantime I’ve been alternatively amusing/tormenting myself by speculating what bands, and what tours, I’d most like to see when normal service finally resumes (whenever the that might be).

One line-up which I think would really bring the house down (possibly quite literally) would be if someone could pull together a triple-header of Misery Index (headlining), Xibalba (main support), and Terminal Nation, especially since the latter’s new album, Holocene Extinction, seems like it was purpose-built to deliver the sort of in-your-face impact that can only truly be appreciated live. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND AN INTERVIEW): EXITIUM SUI – “THE SINISTER BUSINESS OF SELLING HOPE”

 Album Reviews, Interviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Aug 052020
 

 

(Andy Synn introduces our premiere stream of a new EP by Exitium Sui, the solo project of ex-Deadspace frontman Chris Gebauer, and presents an interview of him as well.)

Exitium Sui may be a relatively new name, but if you’ve been paying attention to this site over the last several months you’ll no doubt have spotted our coverage of the band’s debut EP, Nuclear Sundown, as well as our preview of “Eviscerate My Withered Soul”, the first song from their upcoming album, Ad Personam (which I’ve heard in full, and it’s a suffocatingly dense and doom-laden slab of grim, blackened filth, make no mistake).

Today we’re bringing you an exclusive stream of The Sinister Business of Selling Hope, which finds the band’s sound pivoting away from the more doom-inflected approach of their first EP in favour of something more closely related to the pulsating blackened belligerence of Leviathan or Blut Aus Nord.

That’s not to say that these four tracks are a total departure from what has gone before – in fact, when the full album is released you’ll likely gain a much better appreciation of  …Selling Hope’s role in the band’s overall development – but suffice it to say that those looking for some seriously oppressive, shockingly aggressive, and crushingly claustrophobic Black Metal will do well to check this one out at the earliest opportunity.

So, please, read on for a full stream of the entire EP accompanied by a short but illluminating interview with band mastermind ES. Continue reading »

SELBST: “RELATOS DE ANGUSTIA”

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Aug 042020
 

 

(Andy Synn wrote the following review of the new album by Selbst, a band that originated in Venezuela and is now based in Chile. The album will be released on August 7th by Debemur Morti Productions.)

For a while now I’ve been trying to put into words precisely what the difference is between Death Metal and Black Metal.

Oh, I know there are lots of physical, practical differences between the two genres (despite what some people might think) but I’ve often struggled to express what I feel is the fundamental difference which separates and defines the two.

The best way I can think to put it is this – if Death Metal is comparable to another form of art, it would be sculpture. It’s all hammer and tongs, chisel and awl, structure and form. It’s about making a plan, holding it in your mind’s eye, and then beating things into shape, chipping away at the excess, to forge something with real, tangible physicality.

Black Metal though… Black Metal is more abstract. It’s about letting whatever’s inside you (for better or worse) pour out onto the canvas in wild, expressive strokes and lurid, hypnotic patterns.

That’s not to say there isn’t a clear sense of vision behind it – there often is – but this willingness to just cut loose and see what flows out is, in my opinion at least, what makes the genre so utterly visceral, so unexpectedly versatile and, every so often, so breathtakingly vulnerable.

And it’s also what makes Relatos de Angustia one of the best Black Metal albums of the year. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HORSE DRAWN — “AMONGST GHOSTS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Aug 042020
 

 

We’ve already seen abundant evidence that pandemic shutdowns and searing economic calamity haven’t crushed musical creativity. Those two ruthless giant hands may be doing their best to choke the life from artists (along with the rest of us), but they haven’t succeeded. In fact, rather than becoming numb or being struck dumb, many musicians have continued to record new music, and for many of those the work has itself become a mental and emotional survival mechanism. Horse Drawn is a case in point.

This Ohio-based duo — multi-instrumentalist Jonny Doyle (Coldfells) and vocalist Bryce Seditz (Plaguewielder) — haven’t been prolific, but their output under the Horse Drawn name has for this writer become must-listen material. While in the midst of the giant mess we all now find ourselves in, they’ve recorded a new EP named Amongst Ghosts that’s being released today, and we are happily spreading the word through this premiere. Continue reading »

VOUS AUTRES: “SEL DE PIERRE”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Aug 042020
 

 

(This is Wil Cifer‘s review of Sel de Pierre, the new album by the French band Vous Autres, which will be released on September 25th by Season of Mist Underground Activists.)

The French seem to have a history of creating black metal not afraid to stray from the blast-beaten path. On their sophomore album this duo continues the tradition. Their debut album was one of 2019’s best black metal releases. This one might not be as blatantly heavy, but it makes up for this in the expansive array of sonic colors they paint these songs with.

While this album is much more atmospheric than their first, I would not label them “post” anything. Sonically, are there elements in the same zip code as post-rock? Yes, but they are gracefully ugly with chilling dissonance. The album’s third track even has an instrumental interlude that would not be out of place on a Nine Inch Nails record. Where most atmospheric black metal takes on a droning meditative quality, here it’s used in the same unnerving way that horror movies manipulate you with their scores. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 123): DESCEND

 Album Reviews, THE SYNN REPORT  2 Responses »
Jul 312020
 

 

(We’ve reached the end of July, and for this month’s edition of THE SYNN REPORT Andy Synn has prepared reviews of all the albums released by the Swedish band Descend, including their latest full-length released on June 26th by Aftermath Music.)

Recommended for fans of: Opeth, Ihsahn, Disillusion

Stockholm stunners Descend have been quietly making a name for themselves in the more progressive circles of the Death Metal underground for a while now, developing a well-deserved reputation as a reliable source of intricate instrumental arrangements and rock-solid riffs that deliver all the primal punch you desire while also engaging your higher brain functions with every dynamic twist and turn.

But, for whatever reason, the Swedish quintet have never really broken through into the wider Metal consciousness in the same way that a number of their peers and predecessors have managed to.

All that might just be about to change however, as their recently released third album, The Deviant, is both a major step up for the band and a potential contender for multiple “Album of the Year” accolades.

Before we get to that, however, I invite you all to come with me on a deep dive into the group’s discography, where you’ll find that there’s also a lot to love in the band’s back-catalogue too. Continue reading »

DROUTH: “EXCERPTS FROM A DREAD LITURGY”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jul 292020
 

 

(July 31 is the date set by Translation Loss Records for the release of the new album by Portland, Oregon’s Drouth, and here we have Andy Synn‘s review.)

It looks like this week is going to be (another) one dedicated to the underdogs.

After all, I’ve already written glowingly about Question and their killer new album, which could well end up on a few “Album of the Year” lists come December, and I’m almost done putting together this month’s edition of The Synn Report, which covers another band whose latest (but largely unheralded) record also deserves a lot more praise and attention.

Then there’s today’s feature, covering the second album from Portland-based blast-fiends Drouth, which looks set to finally (and firmly) put them on the Black Metal map. Continue reading »

QUESTION: “REFLECTIONS OF THE VOID”

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Jul 282020
 

 

(We present Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by the Mexican death metal band Question, which will be released by Chaos Records on July 31st.)

The annual battle for “Death Metal Album of the Year” is always a close-fought and contentious one, and 2020 is no exception.

So far I’ve seen a lot of people throwing their weight behind Ulthar’s Providence and Black Curse’s Endless Wound (and with good reason, because both albums are great), and there’s also been a hell of a lot of buzz about the new Necrot (which I’m sure we’ll be reviewing very soon) and, to a lesser extent, Draghkar’s long-gestating, soon-to-be-released debut.

However, from where I’m standing, it’s Reflections of the Void which is the real dark-horse contender for the title. Continue reading »

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