Andy Synn Archives - Page 148 of 160

KAMPFAR: “PROFAN”

Nov 042015

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

Earlier this year I was lucky enough to witness a show-stealing, career-defining performance by Norwegian legends-in-waiting Kampfar, when they stepped out onto the main stage at Inferno Festival and proceeded to deliver a masterclass in true Black Metal power and spirit, ultimately describing their set as one which “will be spoken of for years to come”. And I still stand by that.

Calling the band “legends-in-waiting” is meant as no disservice to them, however. It’s rather an acknowledgement that although the quartet have long since achieved legendary status in certain circles, their wider acclaim has yet to reach the level which should be theirs by right.

Yet, by the same token, it’s startling to realise that now, 20 years into their career, Kampfar are in the midst of an ongoing (and seemingly unstoppable) creative and critical renaissance, which began with 2011’s riveting Mare, continuing through last year’s ravenous Djevelmakt, and leading us, in turn, to Profan, their latest slab of sharp-toothed metallic menace. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT, PART 65: WITHERED

THE SYNN REPORT 6 Responses »

Nov 022015

(Andy Synn presents the 65th edition of THE SYNN REPORT, reviewing the discography of Withered — who have a new album on the way.)

Recommended for fans of: Ulcerate, Krallice, Lord Mantis

Ugly. Raw. Nihilistic. Harrowing. These words — and many more besides — can all be applied to the work of bile-spewing troubadours Withered, who have so far produced three particularly stellar (if also particularly underappreciated) albums blending the raving savagery of Black Metal, with the wrenching heaviness of Death Metal, and the slime-drenched grooves of Sludge, each one bathed in a scalding miasma of acid-rain atmospherics and bleak, bitter misanthropy.

If you’ve encountered the band before, and/or have read any other reviews of their work, then I’m sure you’ll have noticed just how much of a struggle it is to adequately categorise the Georgian quartet (recently reduced to a three-piece after the departure of guitarist/vocalist Dylan Kilgore – who’s been replaced by Primitive Man’s Ethan McCarthy – as well as both long-time bassist Mike Longoria and his interim replacement Zach Harlan, with bass duties on the upcoming album being handled by a certain Colin Marston).

It’s not that the basic elements of the band’s sound are wholly unique – I, and others, have picked out references to everyone from (early) Mastodon to Morbid Angel, from Dissection to Neurosis, from Deathspell Omega to Entombed, underpinning their particular brand of Blackened Death-Sludge (or, possibly, Ensludgened Death-Black). It’s just that the resultant cacophony, this grim and godless entity that calls itself Withered, rises above these comparisons to stand defiantly on its own two feet.

Some people call them Death Metal. Some people call them Black Metal. Some people call them Sludge Metal. But whatever we all decide to call them, I’m sure we can all agree that they’re awesome. Continue reading »

FIVE OF MY FAVOURITE… GOATWHORE TRACKS

Listmania 3 Responses »

Oct 292015

(If you read your humble editor’s earlier post today, you’ll know that I wasn’t expect to post anything by any of our other writers today… and then Andy Synn stepped up with this installment of favorite things that come in fives.)

Here he comes to save the day…

Ahem. Anyway, after Our Great And Most Glorious Leader’s post earlier today about having nothing to hand for the site for once, I took it upon myself to quickly bash something together in order to help uphold our nigh-unimpeachable record of journalistic quality and integrity.

Or, something like that.

Either way, it’s a good enough excuse to jam out some fat and filthy blackened riffs whilst picking and choosing five of my favourite songs by everyone’s favourite cloven-hoofed courtesans of Satan.

Deep breath…

Altogether now…

GOATWHORE!!! Continue reading »

OTARGOS: “XENO KAOS”

Album Reviews 3 Responses »

Oct 272015

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by the French band Otargos.)

Full disclosure: I’ve been a big fan of this band for a long time now (although, curiously, I don’t think I’d seen them live until this year’s edition of Incineration Festival), and have loyally followed them as they’ve transitioned, slowly but surely, from the more overt blackness of their early years, to the denser, more Death-tinged sound which they now wield.

Yet whilst their new album, Xeno Kaos, most definitely (even defiantly) continues this progression away from the realms of Black Metal, it also simultaneously takes both a step forwards and a step backwards from its predecessor, dropping the thrashier edge found on Apex Terror whilst making more room for a grimly oppressive Industrial undercurrent reminiscent of 2010’s No God, No Satan.

This clanking, industrialised soundscaping is nothing new to the band, obviously, but the way it’s deployed here alongside the steadily more Death Metal-leaning metallicisms that the band have made their stock-in-trade puts me strongly in mind of Norwegian extremists Zyklon (or perhaps their cousins in Myrkskog).

So, if you’re a fan of either of those bands (or simply a long-time Otargos fan curious as to where the band’s more deathly ambitions have taken them) then read on! Continue reading »

THE INFERNAL SEA: “THE GREAT MORTALITY”

Album Reviews 11 Responses »

Oct 192015

(Andy Synn reviews the second album by UK band The Infernal Sea.)

To say I’ve been champing at the bit to get hold of a copy of this album would be a severe understatement. To my mind The Infernal Sea are, without a doubt, one of the finest, filthiest, most utterly ferocious bands currently prowling this green and pleasant land of mine, having spent the last six years spreading their virulent strain of grim ‘n’ gritty Black Metal like a veritable Biblical plague.

However, as good as their previous releases (one full-length album, one EP, and two splits) were, it still always felt to me like the band’s full potential had yet to be realised, and multiple exposures to the band’s contagious brand of blackened intensity in the live arena only served to solidify this feeling.

Praise Satan then that the band’s second album, The Great Mortality, is exactly the sort of near-perfect realisation of their sound and vision that we’ve all been waiting for, fulfilling all the band’s nascent promise… and then some! Continue reading »

ULCERATE / BELL WITCH / AGELESS OBLIVION -– LIVE AT THE CHAMELEON, NOTTINGHAM OCT 11, 2015

Concert Reviews 4 Responses »

Oct 162015

(Andy Synn attended the performances of Ulcerate, Bell Witch, and Ageless Oblivion in Nottingham, England, on October 11 and turns in this report, with his own videos of the show.)

Though my erstwhile compatriots may have been attending the sun and shenanigans of California Deathfest without me last weekend (seriously, where was my invite? I thought we were friends!?!) that doesn’t mean that yours truly was without suitably metallic diversions of my own, as I was lucky enough to bear witness to the titanic Death Metal maelstrom known as Ulcerate rolling through my town, leaving a trail of shattered lives and lacerated ear-drums in its wake.

The story gets even better though, as the New Zealend three-piece were accompanied on their pilgrimage of pain by gloom-heavy doomsters (and perennial NCS darlings) Bell Witch and uber-riff-mongers Ageless Oblivion (whose album Penthos I picked as one of my absolute favourite releases of last year).

Not only that but the venue they played, The Chameleon, is the sort of intimate, DIY place that packs a lot of character, and a frankly massive soundsystem, into a very small space, meaning there’s nowhere to hide from the overwhelming onslaught of sonic punishment unleashed by the bands.

You know how an explosion that occurs in an enclosed space is ten times more devastating than one that occurs out in the open? Well that sums up the night quite nicely. Continue reading »

FIVE OF MY FAVOURITE… SATYRICON SONGS

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 20 Responses »

Oct 082015

(Andy Synn presents yet another list of his favorite things that come in fives.)

With the recent news that Satyricon frontman Satyr has been diagnosed with a (hopefully benign) brain tumour, I felt now was as good a time as any to wax poetic about my love for the band, and pick out five of my favourite tracks from across their back catalogue.

Once again I’ve tried to stay away from the obvious choices, so you won’t find any mention of “Hvite Krists død” or “Mother North” here, and likewise you’ll also note a distinct absence of the big singles like “Fuel For Hatred” and “K.I.N.G.”.

Still, it’s a testament to the band’s longevity and songwriting prowess that it’s just as easy to pick out any number of other songs that hit the same heights, from across the length and breadth of their creative catalogue, as it is to focus in on their most famous numbers. Continue reading »

INFESTING SWARM: “DESOLATION ROAD”

Album Reviews 3 Responses »

Oct 052015

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by Germany’s Infesting Swarm.)

Some band names… they… just don’t really reflect their musical content. There you go. I said it.

As much as I love Rotting Christ, for example, it still occasionally strikes me as odd to hear that name in conjunction with the martial grandeur of their recent (and, I would argue, best) material. Similarly the name Septic Flesh doesn’t exactly line-up with the gothy symphonic pomp and circumstance that the band deal in exclusively these days (and, I would argue, wasn’t even a great fit for their early years).

Germany’s Infesting Swarm are another band whose name sits ever-so-slightly awkwardly with the sound of their music, with a moniker more suggestive of the blood-and-bile splattered aesthetic of a Brutal Death Metal band (or, at a push, a skittery Tech-Death band) than the gloom-shrouded Post Black Metal that they actually deal in.

Still, a wise man once wrote that “a rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet”… so the real question, maybe the only important question, is – how good is the music? Continue reading »

FIVE OF MY FAVOURITE… BLACK DAHLIA MURDER SONGS

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 15 Responses »

Oct 022015

(Andy Synn returns to an irregular series in which he identifies favorite things that come in fives.)

Earlier today I finally found time to finish off my monthly helping of reviews for London Metal Monthly, the free magazine/webzine for which I moonlight when I’m not terrorizing the NCS readership with my overly-opinionated and utterly scintillating wordsmanship.

It’s a very different way of working than we have here at NCS Towers, with (relatively) stricter deadlines and (much) stricter word counts. In fact it’s a real struggle sometimes to say something meaningful about an album in only 140 words. Often, in-depth detail has to take second place to a focussed discussion of overall quality. If I’m very lucky I can find room to give an impression of the overarching themes and vibe of the album, but generally if I want to say anything particularly meaningful it has to be short, sweet, and succinct.

One of the albums on my slate this time around was Abysmal, the seventh slab of Melodic Death Metal might from our much beloved friends in The Black Dahlia Murder, and since I didn’t really have time to go as deep into the album as I might have liked, I’ve been inspired to put together this little list pulling together some of my favourite “deep cuts” from the band’s post-Nocturnal era.

So… shall we begin? Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT, PART 63: STELLAR MASTER ELITE

THE SYNN REPORT 11 Responses »

Oct 012015

(In this 63rd edition of THE SYNN REPORT, Andy reviews the discography to date of Germany’s Stellar Master Elite — including their just-released third album, Eternalism.)

Recommended for fans of: Thorns, Satyricon, Aborym

The Synn Report isn’t just about covering bands retrospectively you know? In fact, frequently I’ll stumble across a band for the very first time and just feel compelled to write about them immediately (see Parts 57 and 60 for recent examples).

German grim-meisters Stellar Master Elite are another example of a band whose name has been floating around the various circles in which I wander for a while, but who – with their upcoming third album (which is being released today) – I’ve only just gotten round to checking out.

Their sound, though instantly memorable, is actually slightly hard to properly categorise. Certainly there’s a significant Blackened backbone to the band, but this is overlain with a Doomy, occult glamour and a shining skin of cyber-industrial synth work… so it should be no surprise to discover that the band named themselves after a song by legendary (if not exactly prolific) Industrial Black Metal forerunners Thorns… though it must also be said that the Germans are less chaotically aggressive overall, but far more ominously bleak in their approach!

So if you’re looking to get your grim, inhuman groove on, then you’ve definitely come to the right place! Continue reading »

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