(Speech Act are a new-ish band from North Carolina, and Andy Synn has fallen pretty hard for their debut album, which was released just last week, despite the fact  that it contravenes our usual rules)

While all of us here at NCS share an abiding love for Metal, there’s definitely certain niches which we each seem to “specialise” in a little more than others.

Islander, of course, tends to stick more to round-ups than reviews, but – either way – if you see something you’ve never heard of, from a band who’ve either only existed for a hot minute or who’ve purposefully hidden themselves away in the shadows for the last several decades, then chances are they’ll be something he’s found and chosen to feature.

DGR, on the other hand, is our go-to guy for Grind, but also often swings the other way (as it were) by providing expert coverage of many of the big (or, at least, big-ish) and/or up-and-coming names from across the scene, and has proven himself a great pinch-hitter in those moments where the rest of us have dropped the ball on something we really should have written something about.

And, of course, then there’s our various (ir)regular contributors (some of whom are very irregular indeed), who each have their own special subjects which they like to focus on.

As for me? Well, while I cover just as much Death Metal and Black Metal (and its many permutations) as the next guy, chances are if you see something here that’s of the proggy or “Post-” variety, or that’s from the Hardcore end of the spectrum, or anything that features a lot of, gasp, clean singing, then it’s probably one of mine… like the album we’re about to discuss.

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