THE SYNN REPORT Archives - NO CLEAN SINGING

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 197): OSTRACA

Aug 012026

Recommended for fans of: Orchid, Envy, (early) Deafheaven

What’s in a (genre) name?

Well, quite a lot – to some people, anyway – it seems, as picking the wrong genre tag for a band will mean some potential listeners might choose not to check out their music, under the wrong impression that it’s “not for them”.

Which is why I have to be careful when talking about Virginia’s Ostraca and their chaotic, cathartic, blast-driven, discordantly-heavy (yet also bleakly melodic) brand of Screamo/Hardcore/Crust.

If you’re not familiar with those terms, or if you think you’re familiar with them but not sure if this article is worth checking out, then allow me to assure you that the records highlighted here today – five albums (including the recently-released Thread) plus one EP (that I’ve already written about, as it happens) – are each, in their own way, as vicious and as visceral, as venomous and as violent, as anything else from the more “metallic” side of the scene, and all more than worthy of your time.

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 196): TODOMAL

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Jul 012026

Recommended for fans of: Moonspell, Anathema, Tiamat

I always try my best to ensure that each edition of The Synn Report is different from the last, in the sense that I never want to have too many Black Metal, or Death Metal, etc, entries in a row.

For example, so far this year we’ve had some maddeningly technical Death Metal brutality (Eximperitus), broodingly proggy Black Metal (Juodvarnis), genre-splicing Industrial Electro-Punk (Doodseskader), riff-heavy Death/Hardcore crossover (Black Breath), and gnarly blackened Sludge (Erdve), so today we’re continuing to keep things fresh by featuring the doomy romanticism of Spain’s Todomal (whose new album is out on Friday).

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 195): ERDVE

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Jun 012026

Recommended for fans of: Celeste, This Gift Is A Curse, LLNN

Call them what you will… Sludge, Post-Metal, “Negative Hardcore”… there’s no question that this band, by any other name, would still sound just as dark and heavy.

That name, by the way, is Erdve, and the band in question hail from the balmy Baltic shores of Lithuania, a country which – despite its relatively small stature on the global metal stage – has also given us the likes of Sisyphean, Aortes, Juodvarnis, Luctus, Awakening Sun, and many more.

And with the recent release of their thrilling third album, Epigrama, last week now seemed like the perfect time to take a deep dive into their discography courtesy of The Synn Report!

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 194): BLACK BREATH

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Apr 302026

Recommended for fans of: Entombed, Wolfbrigade, Fuming Mouth

One week from today I’ll be back in Seattle attending another sure-to-be-awesome edition of Northwest Terror Fest, where you’ll find me getting a much-needed neck workout courtesy of the likes of Nightmarer, Kylesa, Wayfarer, Oranssi Pazuzu, Barren Path, and Pig Destroyer.

One of the biggest draws for me, however – and, I’d imagine, for a lot of other people too – is the return, for one night only, of legendary Death/Thrash/Crust Punk crossover crew Black Breath who’ll be performing live for the first time since the untimely death of their bassist Elijah Nelson at the end of 2019.

And so, to celebrate this – as well as to give the festival, which still has a few tickets available here (though that won’t be the case much longer), one last push – I thought I’d use this edition of The Synn Report (which is dedicated to my good friend Joseph, who is not only the biggest Black Breath fan I know but also the guy who introduced me to the band in the first place) to remind us all just how good these guys are.

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 193): DOODSESKADER

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Apr 012026

Recommended for fans of: Nine Inch Nails, Deftones, Death Grips, Godflesh, clipping.

The thing about blending genres is – just like mixing together too many shades of paint – what you often end up with is just… beige.

But when you get it right, not just sloppily blending together all the most generic and familiar aspects of different styles but relying on the clashing, kaleidoscopic contrasts between them to create something weird and provocative that smashes through all the established boundaries… that’s when you get Doodseskader.

And with their third album set for release on Friday, now seemed like the perfect time to shine some light on the duo’s unique amalgam of Electro-Industrial-Hip-Hop and Nu-Punk-Sludge-Metal.

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 192): JUODVARNIS

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Mar 022026

Recommended for fans of: Vintersorg, Enslaved, (early) Sólstafir

When one talks about “Progressive Black Metal” there are certain names that tend to get mentioned the most (some of which I’ve noted above already).

But Lithuania’s Juodvarnis (who recently released their 4th album) tend to get overlooked, which is a damn shame because the band’s evolution – their progress, if you will – has been a real joy to watch/hear.

Beginning as a a more ruggedly melodic, folk-ish band of brothers, the group have slowly evolved in an increasingly heavier and more “blackened” direction, which reached its apex on January’s outstanding Tékmés and – luckily for all you folks reading this right now – today’s edition of The Synn Report will give you an opportunity to follow the group’s creative progress/process right from the beginning all the way up until their current incarnation.

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 191): EXIMPERITUS

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Feb 012026

Recommended for fans of: Nile, Mithras, Decrepit Birth

First off… no, I’m not going to be typing out the band’s full name.

For one thing, they’re mostly known by the shortened version, Eximperitus, anyway.

And, for another… c’mon people, there’s only so many hours in the day/days in the week/weeks in the month, and by the time I’d have finished typing it for the third or fourth time it would probably be mid-March.

Suffice it to say, however, that this band… by any other name… would still be as brutal, as technical, and as mind-bending, and more than capable of goig toe-to-toe with the likes of Origin or Wormed, Wormhole or Defeated Sanity, or absolutely any of the very best of the Brutal/Technical Death Metal scene.

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 190): JOURS PÂLES

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Dec 312025

Recommended for fans of: Heretoir, Harakiri For The Sky, Gaerea

Well, here we are everyone, the very last post of the year… before we begin all over again tomorrow.

And it’s fitting that the last post of 2025 gets to be another edition of The Synn Report, as this series of articles was always intended to mark the transition from one month to another… or, in this case, from one year to the next.

I will say, however, that it is absolutely shocking to me that this is the first time we’re writing at any real length about prolific French “Post” Black Metal project Jours Pâles, as while we may have mentioned them here and there before (including just recently in my end-of-year round-up) the timing has just never been right for us to give them the attention they’ve so clearly deserved.

But now, at last, it’s time to change that.

So if you like your music rich in both blackened intensity and moody melodic energy – their most recent album, Résonances, in particular has some serious late-90’s/early-00’s era Dark Tranquillity vibes to it – all topped off with a blend of heart-wrenching emotional highs and immersive, introspective lows which owe a fair bit, in my estimation, to the viscerality and vulnerability of Punk/Hardcore, then you might just be about to discover your new favourite band.

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 189): CZERNINA

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Dec 012025

Recommended for fans of: Shining, Maladie, Der Weg Einer Freiheit

It was just last year when I stumbled across Polish Black Metal madmen Czernina for the first time, and quickly fell in love with their absolutely scorching delivery, whose impressively heavy sound was tempered – and by this I do mean strengthened – by a strain of subtle stangeness woven deep into the warp and weft of their sound.

And when I randomly discovered that the band’s third album, Oszukać Listopad, had been released just last week (and right in time for the end of the month) I knew it was their turn to be on the receiving end of another one of my discography deep-dives.

So if you’re looking for a dose of unflinchingly causitc, yet also unusually creative Black Metal (there’s a reason, after all, that the above “for fans of” references are all for bands who err towards the proggier, yet also punishing, side of the genre)… well, here’s not one but three lethal injections to stick straight into your veins.

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 188): GORYCZ

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Oct 312025

Recommended for fans of: Oranssi Pazuzu, White Ward, Grey Aura

It’s been a busy month, and time is short, so let’s dispense with the preamble, shall we?

Suffice it to say that if you’re looking for some richly textured, darkly evocative music that combines the best bits of “Blackened Post-Metal” and “Post-Black Metal” (of the more avant-garde kind, rather than the more populist one) into something that can best be described as “post-genre”… then Poland’s Gorycz might just be for you.

And with their third album, Zasypia, having just been released back at the beginning of the month now seemed like the perfect time to shine a spotlight on the band.

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