Andy Synn Archives - Page 145 of 160

OMNIUM GATHERUM: “GREY HEAVENS”

Feb 122016

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by Finland’s Omnium Gatherum.)

As you know, we’re not really in the business of publishing negative reviews here at NCS. In fact I think the very idea of publishing something wholly negative gives Islander heart palpitations.

Still, I have to say that Grey Heavens, the seventh album by Finnish melodeath titans Omnium Gatherum, is, without a doubt, a thoroughly frustrating listening experience.

There are times when it positively crackles with the band’s patented musical magic, driven by the same passion and energy that made The Redshift, New World Shadows, and Beyond such thrilling, electrifying albums, ably accented by characteristic tinges of proggy melancholy and shamelessly extravagant fretboard theatrics.

Unfortunately, there are also times (more than I’m really comfortable with, truth be told) where it limps rather than gallops along, with a much more uneven gait, hamstrung and prevented from reaching its full potential by a nagging feeling of over-familiarity and a sense of “been there, done that” which lingers like a vaguely unpleasant odour.

Like I said… it’s frustrating, fluctuating as it does between utterly stupendous, and unsatisfyingly stock in its delivery. But that doesn’t make it a bad album. Just an uneven one. Continue reading »

CROWDFUNDING… OR, HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND SPEND MY MONEY WHERE IT DOES THE MOST GOOD

Mosh Pit 4 Responses »

Feb 112016

“Progress” by Agostino Arrivabene

(Andy Synn has been thinking… and now shares his thoughts in defense of the phenomenon of crowdfunding.)

I’m often surprised, and yet not surprised at all, at the amount of ire and controversy that surrounds the issue of crowdfunding.

On the one hand it’s seen as a way for bands to engage more directly with their audiences, to cut out the middleman, and get their music directly into the hands of their audience (whilst also, hopefully, cutting down on the oft-crippling levels of debt they would otherwise accumulate).

Yet on the other hand barely a month goes by without someone – whether an older band feeling crotchety, or a newer band trying to establish their “punk” credentials – getting their underwear in a twist over the issue, calling it “pathetic”, or equating it with “begging”, while stating that “real” bands like them never had to do that (simultaneously bolstering their own perceived credibility in the process, whilst also ignoring the hundreds and hundreds of “real” bands who take out loans from banks or friends or family in order to fund their music).

Still, I can see where both sides are coming from (to an extent anyway), even if I don’t necessarily agree with where they end up. Continue reading »

OBSCURA: “AKRÓASIS”

Album Reviews 5 Responses »

Feb 082016

(Andy Synn reviews the eagerly awaited new album by Obscura.)

Let me ask you something… when you see an album being universally praised across the board, especially if it’s an album by a band who it seems were “predestined” in some way to be a big deal, do you ever find yourself a wee bit suspicious of this outpouring of goodwill and fawning praise? Do you ever find yourself questioning the motives and intentions of the writers/reviewers in question? Do you ever find yourself thinking “well, duh, of course you were going to say that… but what’s it really like”?

Because I do.

I think it’s normal to be a little suspicious of any artist or album that’s receiving nothing but positive (often overly so) reactions from the Metal press. Heck, I think I know enough about the “scene” these days to have a good idea of which publications still retain their integrity and impartiality (such as it is)… and which ones don’t… and think I have a pretty good sense of when a review was clearly pre-planned and effectively written out even before the writer heard the album. Such things come with the territory.

But I’m here to tell you now that the praise being flung Obscura’s way for their new album Akróasis? It’s all very much deserved. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: TERZIJ DE HORDE

Interviews 4 Responses »

Feb 082016

(We present Andy Synn’s very interesting interview with members of the Dutch black metal band Terzij de Horde.)

No matter how hard we try, every year there are a number of frankly amazing bands/albums we simply don’t get around to covering, despite our best intentions.

Self, by ravenous Dutch dilettantes Terzij de Horde, is one of those albums.

Packed with manic, high-voltage tremolo lines, howling, cathartic vocals, and storm-blasting drum work, it’s undeniably a Black Metal album right down to its darkly cerebral core, but (as you’ll soon discover) the music on Self is just as undeniably rooted in the essential elements of Punk and Crust/Hardcore at their most visceral.

And it’s this fearless embrace of other genres – both their differences and their commonalities – coupled with the band’s penchant for massive, harrowing riffs, nerve-jangling dissonance, and moments of creeping, atypical melody, that make Self such an instantly engaging, endlessly rewarding listen.

I could definitely go on about this album at length, as it really is one of the best releases – Black Metal or otherwise – that came out last year. However, as you’re about to find out, the members of the band themselves (in this case vocalist/lyricist Joost Vervoort and bassist/lyricist Johan van Hattum) proved themselves to be extremely capable and interesting interview participants, and so I’m more than happy to let their words do all the heavy lifting this time around! Continue reading »

ANDY SYNN’S TOP 10 SONGS OF 2015

LISTMANIA 2015 2 Responses »

Feb 052016

(Year-end lists… you just can’t kill em’. But Andy Synn has made a habit of crowning our annual LISTMANIA series with one final offering — his selection of the last year’s top songs — and this year is no different.)

Did you REALLY think I was done with lists? Are you really that naive? Oh, how foolish are those who are most willing to be.. umm… fooled. Or something.

Yes, it’s no secret I enjoy making lists, and as such have a particular fondness for the end-of-year period here at NCS, not just because it lets me indulge my numero-erotic list-making proclivities in full (and in public, no less) but also because I sincerely enjoy reading and debating all the other lists we publish and reference and, in the process, discovering bands I’d otherwise overlooked.

The hardest list to pull together though is the list of my favourite songs of the year. Not because of any hard-fought pretence of objectivity (there’s none of that here), but because there’s simply so many options to choose from, with my initial list coming in at well over 100 entries, each drawn from albums across the length and breadth of my Great/Good/Disappointing lists of last year.

But, finally… finally… I managed to whittle it down to the ten selections you’re about to encounter.

I’m not suggesting these are the definitive “Best” songs of the year by any means, they’re just ten tracks which have burrowed their way under my skin and into my brain the deepest.

So, without further ado… Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT, PART 68: SEVEN SISTERS OF SLEEP

Album Reviews, THE SYNN REPORT 3 Responses »

Feb 012016

photo by Forrest Locke

(For this 68th edition of The Synn Report, Andy takes as his subject the discography of SoCal’s Seven Sisters of Sleep — including their brand new album due for release by Relapse on February 5.)

Recommended for fans of: Eyehategod, Acid Bath, Soilent Green

After traversing the parched, sun-beaten wastelands of Texas in last month’s edition of The Synn Report, this time we’re travelling West to the city of angels, Los Angeles, to catch up with inveterate noise-mongers Seven Sisters of Sleep.

For those unfamiliar with the band, here’s a warning. This is some nasty, unrepentantly nihilistic stuff, straddling the blood-crusted nexus point between filthy Sludge, groaning Doom, buzzing Drone, seething Hardcore, and grim Old School Death Metal… with more than a few splashes of venomous Grind thrown in for good measure. Suffice it to say, this is definitely not music for the faint of heart.

By the same token though, it never feels like the band have just mashed-up all these sounds into one big, messy Extreme Metal sundae. Rather their sound comes across like a distillation of each of these styles down to their shared essence, filtered and refined to produce pure Extreme Metal moonshine, that’s just as likely to make you bang your head and scream your guts out as it is to make you go blind… and scream your guts out.

Though the band have a fair few splits and EPs to their name, I’ve elected to stick just to the full-length albums for this edition of The Synn Report, in particular their about-to-be-released third album Ezekiel’s Hags. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW WITH CSR OF SCHAMMASCH

Interviews 3 Responses »

Jan 272016

photo by Ester Segarra

(Andy Synn presents this new interview with CSR of the Swiss band Sammasch, whose new album will be upon us in 2016.)

Swiss spiritual occultists Schammasch have been a firm favourite of several members of the NCS team ever since we stumbled across the band’s masterful double-album Contradiction a few years back.

Since then we’ve run features on the band several times, covering everything from new videos, to live show reviews, to the re-release of their debut album Sic Lvceat Lvx, and tried to stay abreast of any and all developments within their camp.

Over the past 5/6 months we’ve tried to stay tuned in to all the updates the band have been putting out regarding the writing and recording of their as-yet-untitled (to everyone outside the band at least) third album, from photo shoots in London to mixing/mastering at Woodshed Studios in Germany.

As the album sessions have now all been wrapped up, and the album is, essentially, “in the can” and primed for release by Prosthetic Records, it seemed like the perfect time to get in touch with the band’s mainman CSR and pick his brains about what 2016 has in store for Schammasch! Continue reading »

ULVER: “ATGCLVLSSCAP”

Album Reviews 11 Responses »

Jan 252016

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by Norway’s Ulver.)

Every Ulver album is unique. But the manner in which the band set about creating their latest opus is certainly more unique than usual.

The music and sounds found on ATGCLVLSSCAP are, in essence, the results of a series of lengthy live improvisations and extemporisations that saw the band taking hold of whatever idea or inspiration would come to them, whether new or old (some of these tracks building from seeds sown in earlier material), and spinning it off into strange and uncharted territory, creating and conjuring new songs and new sounds almost on the fly.

And yet, that isn’t the whole story, as the fruits of these recordings were then taken back to be analysed, deconstructed, re-tracked and (in some cases) further reimagined in the confines of the band’s home-studio, with the final results managing to capture and maintain the sense of spontaneity and invention from those early live sessions whilst bolstering them with 1.21 gigawatts of pure sonic super-science! Continue reading »

FIFTH TO INFINITY: “OMNIPOTENT TRANSDIMENSIONAL SOULFIRE”

Album Reviews 7 Responses »

Jan 222016

(Andy Synn reviews the striking new album by Sweden’s Fifth To Infinity, which is out now via Avantgarde Music.)

One of my continuing joys in life is the discovery of new music, and each new year brings with it more potential to discover new bands, or even old bands I’ve never heard before, that I can then share with our readership here at NCS.

The (slight) downside to this, of course, is that there’s always a nagging voice in the back of my head worrying that this year will be the one when I don’t find anything good enough… particularly when compared with some of the utterly fantastic discoveries I’ve stumbled across in previous years!

So you can imagine how pleased I was to happen across this unexpected gem of an album so soon into the new year! Continue reading »

THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER / BENIGHTED – LIVE AT THE RESCUE ROOMS, NOTTINGHAM (JAN. 17, 2016)

Concert Reviews 2 Responses »

Jan 202016

(Andy Synn reviews the performances of The Black Dahlia Murder and Benighted in Nottingham, England, on January 17, 2016.)

Sunday night did not quite go as planned for me this week. As I’m still a bit under the weather after my recent travels and travails in Central America, my original intention was just to have a quiet night in to rest and recharge my batteries. However, out of the blue I received an invite from my good friend Gary (of Bite Radius Designs fame) to come out and see his boys in Benighted supporting The Black Dahlia Murder. Originally I was going to demur, but after I received a message saying “you’re on the guest list”… well, it would have been rude not to go!

To be fair, although I’m a bigger fan of TBDM than I am of Benighted, I definitely enjoy both bands a hell of a lot and, in hindsight, I would probably have severely regretted not going if I’d wussed out and stayed home.

So this review goes out to Gary and Julien for getting me off my ass and out to the show. Much appreciated guys! Continue reading »

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