THE SYNN REPORT (PART 103): SPEARHEAD

 Album Reviews, THE SYNN REPORT  1 Response »
Nov 302018
 

 

(In this November edition of The Synn Report, Andy combines reviews of the four albums released to date by UK devastators Spearhead, including their new album Pacifism Is Cowardice, released one week ago by Invictus Productions.)

Recommended for fans of: Vader, Witchery, Goatwhore

Pulling no punches and taking no prisoners, Spearhead have been weaponising their particular brand of Blackened Death-Thrash for almost fifteen years now, and have produced four utterly ferocious albums during that time, the most recent of which – Pacifism Is Cowardice – came out just one week ago, following a seven-year gap between records.

And while the quartet – now made up of founding bassist/vocalist Barghest, long-time guitarist Invictus, and new members Typhon (drums) and Praetorian (guitars) – clearly have a deep, abiding affection for the classic, old school style(s) of Extreme Metal, you’ll soon see/hear that their latest record in particular aims for more of an ageless, enduring sound than some sort of uninspired throwback.

So gird your loins, brothers and sisters, and follow me once more into the breach! Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): COSMIC ATROPHY — “THE VOID ENGINEERS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Nov 302018
 

 

(Today we premiere a full stream of the new album by Cosmic Atrophy from Biloxi, Mississippi, preceded by an introductory review by Vonlughlio.)

As you, my dear readers, already know by now, my small reviews usually focus on bands in the Brutal Death Metal genre (one of my favorites). Nevertheless, I do like other genres as well, such as Death, Black, Black/Death, and Doom Metal, just to name a few. But when given the opportunity to write for NCS,  I wanted to focus on a genre that could use more exposure. Also, Islander and the team of writers do a fantastic job in promoting/writing about all the main genres here.

With that being said, in my time here at NCS I have written about some non-BDM such as Mournful Congregation, whose release last year I was privileged to write a few words about.

This time around I am very fortunate to do a small write up for Cosmic Atrophy‘s sophomore album The Void Engineers. Simply put, it is for me how Progressive Death Metal should sound, and it has impacted me immensely. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A GUEST REVIEW): BANE — “ESOTERIC FORMULAE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  5 Responses »
Nov 282018
 

 

(Today we premiere a full stream of the third album by the blackened death metal band Bane, which is recommended for fans of Dissection, Behemoth, and Rotting Christ. It will be released on November 30th by Black Market Metal Label, and we introduce our premiere with a guest review of the album by Caleb Newton.)

The once Serbia-based and now Canadian experimental black metal outfit Bane present a complex and nuanced but ruthless sonic monster that demands some digestion via Esoteric Formulae, their November 30 full-length on Black Market Metal Label. The album hinges on some truly ambitious concepts, to the point that rather than sticking with the human morbidity that other similarly styled albums tack their themes to, this record focuses on the cosmos. Continue reading »

INHUME: A PREVIEW OF THE “EXHUME” COMPILATION AND AN INTERVIEW OF BEN JANSSEN

 Album Reviews, Interviews  No Responses »
Nov 272018
 

 

(On December 7th Xenocorp will release a special 25th-anniversary compilation of remastered material across the long career of the Dutch extremists Inhume. In this post Vonlughlio provides a preview of the release, including music, and an interview of the band’s guitarist Ben Janssen.)

This small preview is about Inhume, a Dutch BDM/Grindcore band that was founded back in 1994 who have released albums and shorter releases that for some (including me) are classics.  However, this project has not gotten the recognition it deserves, despite creating  quality music that is pure raw aggressiveness and reminds us of a golden era in the underground.

They have released some demos, splits, and four albums that are fast, deadly, in-your-face BDM/grind; the band just wants to rip your face off.  But their last release was the full-length Moulding The Deformed back in 2010, so you might understand that I’d given up on more music until I saw a FB status from the Xenocorp label that they would be releasing a compilation collecting all of Inhume’s demos and splits, tribute tracks, and previously unreleased material. Continue reading »

KUNSTZONE: “SOLARBORN”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Nov 272018
 

 

(In this post DGR reviews the latest album by one of his favorite projects, the two-headed industrial-death monster known as Kunstzone.)

I’ve followed Kunstzone for a long time, having covered them at this site since their debut release — an interest spawned by my having enjoyed its two component musicians’ prior projects: Khaozone and the various messes musician Alex Rise involves himself in, at the time his Tyrant Of Death project.

Half of the fun of following Kunstzone has been witnessing the tug-of-war for the group’s sound on each one of its releases, with one side slowly gaining a victory over the other. If one were to pick apart the industrial death metal group’s sound, one would note the slow favoring of more and more overall extremity on each one of the band’s releases, with the group’s 2017 single Creatures Of Sinew And Lard serving as a bellweather for what the group’s newest album Solarborn was going to subject us all to. Continue reading »

BLASPHEMER: THE PREMIERE OF “NAZARENE” AND A REVIEW OF “LUST OF THE GOAT”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Nov 262018
 

 

The British band Blasphemer, whose roots go back to 1990, returned to the field of battle with a self-titled album in 2017 after a 20-year gap in their musical output. The story of what happened to the band after their auspicious beginnings is recounted in this NCS interview. Fortunately, as that interview foretold, Blasphemer have let much less time pass between releases since then, with a second album now due for release by Grind Scene Records on November 30th.

While last year’s self-titled album was a roughly 50/50 mix of old Blasphemer compositions and new ones, Lust of the Goat brings eight newly-written tracks, one of which (“Child Catcher”) debuted last month, and we’re bringing you another one today. This new track, which closes the album, is “Nazarene“. Continue reading »

SVARTIDAUÐI: “REVELATIONS OF THE RED SWORD”

 Album Reviews  10 Responses »
Nov 262018
 

 

(Andy Synn prepare this review of the new album by Svartidauði.)

As a fan of this weird and wonderful sub-genre we call “Extreme Metal”, you’d have to have been living under a rock for the past several years not to be aware of how impressive and influential (not to mention incestuous) the rapidly developing Icelandic Black Metal scene has become over the last several years.

But even though the scene is, in terms of wider international exposure at least, still relatively young, such is the prolific nature of the various bands and artists involved that a recognisable hierarchy of heretics has already begun to take shape.

And right at the top of the totem pole, in my opinion at least, are Svartidauði. Continue reading »

BLOODBATH: “THE ARROW OF SATAN IS DRAWN”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Nov 232018
 

 

(Here are DGR’s thoughts about the new album by Bloodbath, which was released on October 26th by Peaceville Records.)

There’s always going to be a certain amount of charm in being self-aware about how “dumb” your music can get sometimes, and glorying in it. There’s an attractive confidence in that when it seems like many bands have to play up how serious they are about how brutal their branch of death metal is, how heavy and violent their noise-unleashing can be. However, when you’re Bloodbath and are a long-established throwback act you can find joy in just how “ridiculous” all of this can be at face value. Continue reading »

A GOD OR AN OTHER: “CHAOTIC SYMBIOSIS”

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Nov 222018
 

 

(We present Andy Synn‘s review of the new second album by A God or an Other, released on November 15th and available now through Bandcamp.)

Continuing along the dark road that this week has driven me down we come to the second album by Olympia, Washington’s own Black Metal mystics A God or an Other, which offers up six tracks of riveting atmosphere and ravenous aggression under the pitiless banner of Chaotic Symbiosis. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): NAG — “NAGGED TO DEATH”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Nov 222018
 

 

NAG don’t forgive and forget. They hold grudges. They bundle up their misery and rage, and then let it all out in eruptions of sound that are both enlivening and life-threatening. Their new album, Nagged To Death, is a raw musical catharsis that’s bleak, black-eyed, bruising, and bombastic — and a hell of an electrifying thrill-ride from start to finish.

This trio, who’ve taken the names Arnfinn Nag, Espen Nag, and Ørjan Nag, hail and howl from the west coast of Norway, and we’re told that “to find inspiration for the riffs and lyrics of their new album, NAG formed a pact with none other than the Sea Goblin, known for its furious hatred towards all things human”. It seems that the Sea Goblin can take various forms, and it’s one of those guises that’s represented in the illustration by Theodor Kittelsen (1857-1914) that appears on the cover of this new album. Like that imagining of the creature, the music is both vile and full of fangs. Continue reading »

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