(Andy Synn follows the migratory patterns of the majestic Oryx as they prepare to release their new album)
To witness a band go from “good” to “great” – as Oryx did with 2021’s Lamenting a Dead World – is one of the great pleasures for a music writer/reviewer.
But being there to see them go from not just “great” to truly “world-class” is an even rarer phenomenon.
Which is why you should all keep an ear out for the band’s newest – and best – album next week.
(Andy Synn presents three more prime cuts of British beef for you to gorge yourselves on)
What’s that? Another “Best of British”? The second in as many weeks?
That’s right, and I’ve even got my next one in the works already (though that won’t be until next month).
And, hey, you might even see some more music from yours truly out before then as well, which will hopefully also add to this year’s bumper crop of killer British bands.
Until then, however, let’s see what the new album from Heriot, Lowen, and Sugar Horse (all out now) have to offer, shall we?
(Andy Synn celebrates, and mourns, the end of an era)
Well, this… fucking… sucks.
Not the release of a new Feral Light album – that’s always something to get excited about – but the fact that A Reckoning with the Intangible (which dropped last Friday) is going to be the band’s final album.
We’re not happy about this, obviously, but sadly there’s nothing we can do about it, so I guess all that’s left for us is to see whether they’ve elected to go out with a bang or a whimper?
Spoiler alert… it’s the former.
(Andy Synn dons his sceptic hat to see whether Absolute Elsewhere is everything people say it is… or perhaps something more)
Some have said – perhaps not unreasonably – that over the years I’ve had a tendency to treat Blood Incantation a little more harshly (or, at least, be a lot less effusive with my praise) than many other writers.
It’s not that I don’t like the band by any means – I’ve reviewed them positively a number of times, in fact, and have largely enjoyed it when I’ve caught their live show (even if I’ve never been as blown away by their “Morbid Angel on mescaline” vibes as a lot of others seem to be).
It’s just that the hype – “the next big thing“, “the future of the genre“, “a paradigm shift in Progressive Death Metal“, and so on – has always (in my opinion) seemed to outstrip the music, such that with every new release it’s felt more and more like the band are trying to play catch-up to everyone else’s expectations (and demands).
But, wouldn’t you know it, it’s when the band finally stopped trying so hard (and, make no mistake, Absolute Elsewhere is the sort of introverted, art-for-art’s sake, album they absolutely needed to make) that Blood Incantation finally, and fully, caught up with all the hype around them… and then some.
(Andy Synn celebrates the return of Portuguese Post-Doom prodigies Sinistro)
As a reviewer I happen to think that context is pretty important.
I don’t just mean the usual types of context you might expect – references to the band’s background and influences, considerations about how an album stack’s up to the group’s previous work, etc – but the context of how your review is going to sit in the wider world.
Questions like “is this review coming out at a good time?” or “who else out there has already written about this?” are ones I think are important to ask, especially since I only have a limited amount of time to dedicate to writing here (I do have a life outside the site, you know).
Case in point, knowing I only had time for one more review this week I had to decide whether to write about Blood Incantation‘s new album or the new record from Sinistro, both of which are set for release this Friday.
But considering that practically everyone is going to be writing about Absolute Elsewhere this week (and I may still pen some thoughts about it myself at some point) I thought it more prudent to dedicate my efforts to reviewing Vértice instead, since my words are likely to have more impact on the latter’s success.
(Andy Synn presents three more artful examples of the Best of British)
There are three things which the three bands featured in today’s article all share:
One… they’re all British (though I suppose that’s obvious).
Two… they’ve all got eye-catching, instantly memorable, double-barrelled names.
And three… they’re all really fucking good.
(Andy Synn presents a collection of four six killer cuts from last month you may have overlooked)
Today’s edition of “Things You May Have Missed (But Shouldn’t)” is a little larger than usual – six artists/albums rather than the normal four – because it was utterly impossible to keep up with the overwhelming torrent of new records that came out in September (and I’m not just talking about all the “big” releases).
Hell, just to get it down to just six bands I had to leave the likes of Ars Veneficium, Convictive, Glare of the Sun, Servant, Ubiquity, and more on the proverbial cutting room floor… so if you’re still looking for stuff to check out after listening to all the albums in this article then there’s a few more names to lend your ear to!
Recommended for fans of: Earth Crisis, All Out War, Living Sacrifice
If you’re not aware – though it’s been well-documented here over the years – Hardcore was the first genre of “alternative”, non-mainstream music that really spoke to me as a kid.
And although I’ve grown apart from “the scene” over the years – I’m sure there’s still good parts of it still, but trying to navigate all the different cliques and their increasing obsession with “mosh style” just isn’t for me any more – I’m still always keen to find and feature new albums and new bands (perhaps you’ve even read about some of them here?) that I think best represent the sort of Hardcore that I want to hear more of.
At the same time, however, I’ve also still got a lot of love for the bands who first got me into the genre back when I was just a dumb kid (as opposed to an equally dumb adult), which is why today I want to (re)introduce you to the thuggishly thrashy Metallic Hardcore of British bruisers Stampin’ Ground.
(Andy Synn looks to the future with the new album from Germany’s Giver)
Don’t you love it when you stumble across an album that just hits you, out of nowhere, like a bolt of lightning?
It’s a fantastic feeling, and one I hope I never lose… especially when it leads me to discover the electrifying Metallic/Melodic/Post- Hardcore of a band like Giver, whose latest release – the powerfully prophetic The Future Holds Nothing But Confrontation – absolutely blew me away the first time I heard it.
(Andy Synn presents three fresh flavours of heaviness for you to – hopefully – enjoy)
In light of how long and wordy my write-up of the newIngurgitating Oblivion was yesterday I decided that today I’d focus instead of a handful of shorter, and simpler, releases from recent weeks – both as a way of giving my brain a little bit of a rest and because I’ve been pretty lax about covering EPs this year.
So, let’s not waste any time and get right to it, shall we?