THE SYNN REPORT (PART 127): LASCAILLE’S SHROUD

 Album Reviews, THE SYNN REPORT  4 Responses »
Nov 212020
 

 

(Today we have a bonus edition of THE SYNN REPORT, with the usual month-ending one still ahead, and here Andy Synn pays homage to the extravagant discography of Florida’s Lascaille’s Shroud.)

Recommended for fans of: Edge of Sanity, Allegaeon, Scar Symmetry

Despite what it says above… this is NOT the November edition of The Synn Report. That’s still to come at the end of the month as normal.

What this is, however, is a bonus edition of everyone’s favourite discography deep-dive designed to correct a grave injustice perpetrated by this site, and by this writer in particular.

You see, several years back we began covering the work of Lascaille’s Shroud, the outlandish Sci-Fi-Prog-Death project of Florida’s Brett Windnagle, and wrote rather glowingly about their first three albums.

But then, somehow, we lost touch with the band, and it was only recently that I discovered that they’ve since produced an additional three albums, with the most recent two being released earlier this year.

As you might gather then, it’s high time for us to catch-up on what we’ve been missing, and while this may not be as comprehensive an article as some of them – Brett’s talent for extravagance means it’s not unusual to see songs shoot past the 15, 20, or 25 minute mark, and both their second and third albums are spread across two stacked discs clocking in at a total of over two hours of music – it should still give you a real feel and flavour for what Lascaille’s Shroud is all about. Continue reading »

HAPPY 11TH BIRTHDAY TO US!

 Birthday Posts, Metal News  48 Responses »
Nov 212020
 

 

On November 21, 2009, I made the first post at this blog, which, with tongue partially in cheek, I had decided to name NO CLEAN SINGING. I started it on a lark. I had no training or experience as a music writer. I had only scattered bits of knowledge about the long history of metal, because until recently I had spent my decades of time on earth mainly listening to other kinds of music. What I did have was a burgeoning attraction to heavy music and a lot of curiosity. Back in those early days of the blogging phenomenon, you really didn’t need much more than that to start out. Probably still don’t.

Of course, the intensity of my own interest and the ease of starting up didn’t mean that anyone would pay attention to NCS — and I didn’t expect that or need it. NCS existed as a hobby, for want of a better word, that I hoped would be an enjoyable diversion for me from the grind of daily life. That was the sum total of my motivation. If you had told me back then that I’d still be doing it 11 years later, or that NCS would achieve a certain level of global notoriety, I would have laughed so hard that I’d have been left gasping for air.

On this milestone birthday, I’ve thought again, as I do every year, about why unexpectedly we’re still here, and what has changed from those earliest of days. Continue reading »

COGNIZANT: “COGNIZANT”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Nov 202020
 

 

(We present Todd Manning‘s review of the 2016 self-titled debut EP of Texas-based Cognizant, which was given a proper CD release by Selfmadegod Records on November 13th.)

When it comes to Grindcore, there’s always been a split, with some bands falling on the Metal side of the fence while others are more firmly rooted in Hardcore, though even more have staked out their territory somewhere smack in the middle. In the case of Dallas-based five-piece Cognizant, they easily emerge from the fetid swamp of Death Metal and their debut self-titled record, re-released courtesy of Selfmadegod Records, shows why they have become a force to be reckoned with.

In 1997, Floridians Assück dropped one of the best Grind records of all time with Misery Index, and they too were heavily indebted to Death Metal (in their case it was the almighty Suffocation). Cognizant looks to Gorguts for much of their Death Metal influence, and this leads their particular brand of blasting a much more complex and abstract edge. But do not mistake this abstractness for a lack of impact, because this is a paint-peeling assault from start to finish. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HYPERVOLUME — “ORBIT”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Nov 202020
 

 

High above the Earth an astronaut drifts alone, abandoned by the destruction of the rocket that sent him there. Eyes wide and stricken by fear, he witnesses visions, of the natural spectacle below him… and of other possibly unnatural spectacles, or perhaps only the dissolution of his own mind.

Those are among the harrowing and mesmerizing sights to be seen in the video we’re premiering today, accompanied by a song that in itself is harrowing and eerily captivating in equal measure. The song is “Orbit“, and it comes from a debut album named Conceive by Chicago’s Hypervolume. Get ready for countdown… and loosen up your neck too. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: GJOAD — “HAGAZUSSA”

 Premieres  5 Responses »
Nov 202020
 

 

As you all know, we spend most of our time here immersed in sounds of metallic extremity, and maybe that’s why I experience a bit of glee whenever I have a chance to surprise you — especially when the surprise is as thoroughly captivating as the music we’re presenting in this post.

The authors of that music are an Austrian trio named Gjoad, who draw inspiration from majestic visions of their native alpine surroundings. They channel those inspirations into a formulation of atmospheric rock that’s beautiful and enthralling, but also dark in ways that can become unsettling. And in creating that music, the band enhance the richness of the atmosphere through the use of instruments such as jaw harps, singing bowls, horns, and bells.

Gjoad‘s debut album is named Samanōn, and it will be released by the always-distinctive French label Antiq on December 15th. What we have for you today is a song from the album named “Hagazussa“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CRAWLING CHAOS — “XLIX”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Nov 192020
 

 

XLIX, the new second album by the Italian death metal band Crawling Chaos which is set for release on November 20th 2020 via Time To Kill Records, is a concept album inspired by a book that remains widely read and widely cited five centuries after it was written, and in its concept is a departure from the more usual subject matter to be found within death metal, including this band’s own full-length debut from seven years ago, Repellent Gastronomy. The band have explained:

“While Repellent Gastronomy was some sort of anthology of Lovecraftian horrors revisited in a death metal fashion, XLIX is a concept album in all respects. To write it we were inspired by “The Prince”, the famous book written by Niccolò Machiavelli in the Sixteenth Century. The narration is a kind of parable, a chronicle out of time and space that traces the story of a nameless and faceless protagonist. All the lyrics are penned in the first person by this sort of ‘new Prince'”. Continue reading »

GORATORY: “SOUR GRAPES”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Nov 192020
 

 

(Here’s Vonlughlio’s review of Goratory’s new album Sour Grapes, which is out now on Everlasting Spew Records.)

This time around I have the opportunity to review Goratory’s new album Sour Grapes, released by Everlasting Spew Records on October 16th.

For those who are not familiar, this Brutal Death Metal band from Boston, Massachusetts was born in 2000 and released their debut demo that year. Their debut album arrived in 2001 and was well-accepted in the scene and stamped their name into our souls since then. Just a year after, they released their second offering, which went into new territory (sort of) when the technical aspects of their music became more prominent, and that went along very well with the brutal delivery they were going for.

For their third offering, they took more time in releasing it. It saw the light of day in 2004 and continued on the same path as its predecessor. This release was amazing, no doubt in my mind, but for me the second release remained my favorite. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: VÖLUR

 Interviews  3 Responses »
Nov 192020
 

 

(In this new interview Comrade Aleks speaks with Lucas Gadke, one of the vocalists and multi-instrumentalists in Toronto’s Völur, whose new album has just been released by Prophecy Productions.)

This trio from Ontario consists of Lucas Gadke (known as a member of psycho doom rock act Blood Ceremony), Laura Bates (of progressive folk band Iomair) and Jimmy P Lightning (from old jazzy post-rock crew Do Make Say Think). Their arsenal is quite wide as they take the bass – drums interaction and lay over it violin, viola, piano, double bass, percussion, and different sorts of vocals.

Previously Völur was usually mentioned as an “ambient folk / doom metal” band, but they seem to have entered new territories with their new EP Veiled City and the even newer LP Death Cult, which saw see the light of day on the 13th of November through Prophecy Productions. Together with Lucas we’ve made a good try to dissect this avant-garde work. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SUBTERRAEN — “ROTTEN HUMAN KINGDOM”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Nov 182020
 

 

To paraphrase a favorite columnist’s words from a piece published today, the autumn’s coronavirus surge was as foreseeable as fall’s fading light, and we are looking at a deadly December nearly everywhere. It becomes easier and easier to think of Nature as sentient, and as having found a new way to revolt against the greedy plundering of humankind and to extract a costly penance for what we have done to it, and to ourselves.

And it is thus a synchronicity of timing that in the midst of this particularly awful fall, in a year already ravaged by disease and ever-increasing weather extremes, Transcending Obscurity Records will be releasing Rotten Human Kingdom by the French band Subterraen, because the album stands as a powerful, unvarnished condemnation of that planetary destruction, and as a harrowing vision of the vengeance that has come and will continue to come in ever-more inventive and terrible ways.

This album, which are are premiering now just days before its release, consists of only four tracks, but each in its own way is monumental, not just in the track-lengths of three of the four, but also in the magnitude of the songs’ emotional impact and the varied ways in which the band have created them. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: ALUSTRIUM / DÖ / FUMING MOUTH

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Nov 182020
 


Alustrium

 

(Andy Synn prepared the following reviews of three recent and very impressive EPs.)

It’s pretty common knowledge that, for the most part at least, I’m more of an “album guy” than an “EP guy”. There’s just something about the extra effort, the extra level of commitment, involved in creating an album that makes it feel more real and more substantial in my mind (although I’m sure that’s not always true).

That being said, I can’t deny that there are certain times when an EP is exactly what I’m looking for from a band, something explicitly designed to deliver a short, sharp shock of (ideally) all their best ideas and elements in one concise, captivating package.

Which is exactly what I have here for you today, three EPs – from three tonally and stylistically very different artists – all of which are pretty much brand new (one of them, in fact, is so new that it isn’t actually released until Friday) that find each band putting out some of their best material yet while also dropping a few hints as to where they might take things next. Continue reading »

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