(Here is Andy Synn’s review of the new old one by The Great Old Ones from France.)
As much as I generally like to give my reviews some sort of concept or over-arching theme, sometimes there are only two questions which really matter – “is it a good album?”, and “is it as good as their last one?”
In the case of EOD: A Tale of Dark Legacy, the third album by French cabalists The Great Old Ones, the answers to those questions are:
(As part of his continuing effort to make his NCS colleagues jealous, Andy Synn attended the performances of Insomnium, Barren Earth, and Wolfheart in Birmingham, England, on January 16, 2017, and files this tardy report.)
Last week I managed to snag myself a guestlist slot on the Birmingham date of the Insomnium/Barren Earth/Wolfheart tour. And a good time it was indeed.
But why has it taken so long for me to get this write-up together?
Laziness. Pure laziness. Or, you know, some other reason. Take your pick.
Either way, better late than never, right? Continue reading »
(We present Andy Synn’s review of the debut album by The Drowned God from Lansdale, PA.)
Never underestimate the value of good artwork. That’s my advice.
I frequently despair at some of the absolute crap that some bands, both new and old, choose to represent their music. If I see one more badly-drawn “Metal monster” cover that looks like it was produced by a toddler with more crayons than brain cells, or one more soulless and shiny photoshop rendering of a woman standing awkwardly in front of a generic post-apocalyptic landscape, it will be too soon.
Because, like it or not, your album art is often the first experience a potential fan has of your music. And first impressions count. As the old saying goes, the first bite is with the eyes…
Case in point, the fantastic artwork for Moonbearer by Can Pekdemir which you can see above immediately grabbed my attention the moment I laid eyes on it. Eye-catching, evocative, and a little haunting to look at, it immediately raised questions in my mind, questions like:
Who was this band?
What was the connection between their music and the strange, shadowy silhouette which adorns their cover?
And where the hell was I…? Continue reading »
(We present Andy Synn’s review of the new album by Deviant Process from Québec City, Québec.)
Whichever way you slice it, last year was a very good year for fans of the more technical side of Death Metal. From the weird and the wonderful, to the brash and the brutal, 2016 offered a wealth of diverse delights and hidden gems across the length and breadth of the ever-expanding Tech Death spectrum.
And one of those hidden gems was Paroxysm, by Canadian destroyers Deviant Process.
So, as yet another part of my ongoing attempt to catch up with some of last year’s most overlooked and underrated albums, here’s my succinct summation of the band’s full-length debut.
It’s awesome. Now go buy it.
What? You wanted a bit more detail than that? Fine… but never say I don’t do anything for you! Continue reading »
(The UK-Ireland Tour of Meshuggah and The Haunted rolled through Nottingham, England, on the night of January 14, 2017, and our man Andy Synn was there — and files this report, with video evidence.)
Why do we go see live music? That’s a question which I’ve been pondering, cogitating on, and generally wondering about for many, many years.
After all, in one sense all that’s going to happen is that we’re going to hear some songs we already know, played with (potentially) more mistakes, in a venue where the sound quality is always a question mark, whilst packed in cheek-to-jowl with a plethora of ne’er-do-wells of dubious morality and questionable personal hygiene.
But, often when we go to see a band and they play TOO perfectly… the reaction is generally just as bad as if they’d played terribly. So it’s clearly not just a case of going to see a band to watch them reproduce the music from their albums wholesale.
I don’t have an answer to that question above by the way, it’s just something that’s been on my mind for a while. If you think about it, the whole process of going to see live music is a little odd after all.
Though I suppose if you think about anything too much it starts to seem a little weird. Continue reading »
(Andy Synn prepared this review of the debut album by the Irish band Partholón.)
Correct me if I’m wrong, but this whole “Post-Metal” malarkey seems to be one of the easiest of Metal sub-genres to do – get yourself a bunch of delay pedals, mix a few churning riffs in with a plethora of gloomy, hanging chord progressions, and bob’s your creepily over-attentive uncle – but also one of the hardest of Metal sub-genres to do right.
Just ticking the right boxes in the right order isn’t enough. You have to have some sense of identity, some sort of character, to be able to stand out from the crowd.
Yes, everyone can do it. But not everyone can do it well.
Which is where Partholón come in. Continue reading »
(Andy Synn reviews the new album by NY’s Black Anvil.)
Towards the tail-end of 2016 I conducted an as-yet-unpublished interview with Black Anvil bassist/vocalist Paul Delaney about the band’s upcoming new album, As Was (out today on Relapse Records).
During said conversation he ruefully acknowledged that the fact that the band’s members all have roots in the NYC Hardcore scene tends to unnecessarily dominate the conversation a lot of the time, often causing people to read into things, or hear things, that aren’t there, and leading interviewers to say or ask things which make it clear they’ve made certain assumptions about the band, and about their music, that they wouldn’t have otherwise.
So I had to laugh when skimming through some of the coverage of As Was on the internet recently, noting several writers/reviewers still attempting to cast doubt upon the band’s sincerity and/or integrity, with the general gist seeming to be that it’s impossible for tattooed ex-Hardcore guys to truly “get” Black Metal, which is a genre that’s solely the preserve of weedy dudes in face paint, who truly understand “darkness” (no parents?).
I mean, are we honestly still going with the whole “jocks vs nerds” stereotype?
Don’t get me wrong. I understand the urge, the need, to see and hold a style of music as “yours”. Particularly if it’s been such a formative part of your identity for so long. But to write off a band simply because they haven’t followed the same path as you is just ludicrous.
There’s more than one way to skin a cat… or to blast a beat… after all. Continue reading »
(We present Andy Synn’s review of the latest EP by Germany’s Wolves Carry My Name.)
Honestly, at some point I will start reviewing new albums from 2017. I promise.
In fact I plan to review a certain new album by a certain gang of US Black Metallers this Friday.
But, in the meantime, I’m continuing full-steam-ahead with my attempt to catch-up on some of last year’s most overlooked gems.
2016 is over when I say it’s over!!! Continue reading »
(Andy Synn reviews the latest album by the band Zao.)
Remember when the word “Metalcore” actually meant something? Those halcyon days when it referred to bands mixing the breakneck emotional intensity of Hardcore with the prodigious sonic power of Metal, rather than being a watchword for formulaic, anodyne angst-merchants desperate for their fifteen minutes of dubious fame?
NoCleanSinging remembers.
And so, it seems, do Zao, who returned at the tail-end of 2016 with what could very well be the best thing they’ve ever released. Continue reading »
(The first week of 2017 has begun, but we still have a few 2016 releases we want to write about, including the second album by Phantom Winter, which is the subject of this review by Andy Synn.)
You’re probably already aware of this, but the fact is there’s simply too much music released each year for any one man, even one as handsome and debonair as myself, to cover it all. There’s always a gem or two (or ten) that slip through the cracks.
As a result I’m going to be spending the next week or so covering some of the releases which DIDN’T make my end of year lists, simply because I:
a) didn’t have chance to give them a full and proper listen, or
b) fell so hard for them that I wasn’t sure I could trust my initial reactions.
Either way, it’s a good opportunity for me to make up for lost ground, before getting fully into the swing of 2017. Continue reading »