Andy Synn Archives - Page 37 of 151

MORKERA – AGGRAVATIONS

May 162023

(Andy Synn invites you all to experience the auditory horror of Morkera‘s new album, Aggravations)

Let me start by saying that Entangled Excavations, the debut album from Croatia’s Morkera was a truly nasty piece of work (in the best possible way), and although it didn’t make my Top Ten of 2022 it was most definitely one of my favourite new discoveries of the year, and the fact that I didn’t get chance to give it a full write up is still something I deeply regret.

But, lo and behold, I now have a chance to make up for this egregious omission because just last week the band released their second full-length – proving that there really is no rest for the wicked!

OMNEROD – THE AMENSAL RISE

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May 152023

(Andy Synn has a few words to share about the new album from Belgium’s Omnerod)

I pontificated a little while ago about what type of year this was going to be… was it going to be a Black Metal or a Death Metal year? Or maybe a Hardcore or Sludge one?

What I didn’t expect was that 2023 might be all about Prog!

The release of genre-b(l)ending, boundary-pushing albums from Hypno5e, Dødheimsgard, The World Is Quiet Here, Nebulae Come Sweet, et al, all make the case for this being a proggier year, and if you include even more melodically-rich releases from the likes of Witch Ripper, Klone, Ohhms, etc, then the argument gains even more weight.

And, hell, I haven’t even mentioned some of the absolutely killer new records which you haven’t heard yet, including (but not limited to) outstanding new records from Rannoch, The Anchoret, and Grant The Sun, all of which I plan to cover here at some point soon.

But before we get to those albums we’ve got the outlandish new album from Omnerod to dig into.

SHORT BUT SWEET: ANTI-RITUAL / KEZIAH / OCULAR TRAUMA

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May 102023

(Andy Synn has had a busy year so far, and has largely taken this week off to recharge, but couldn’t resist the urge to write about these three EPs while he recovers)

To my great shame I haven’t written about many short-form releases so far this year.

Why? Well, long story short… which is a phrase whose origins are complicated and rambling… I just haven’t had time.

Ironically, however, it’s this very lack of time which leads me to write about these three EPs today!

CATTLE DECAPITATION – TERRASITE

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May 042023

(Cattle Decapitation are about to serve up another platter of pain and Andy Synn is here with a gourmand’s take on what to expect)

Now, before we begin, I’m going to say something controversial.

You’re not going to want to hear it, but I think it’s important in order to establish a basis of trust and, hopefully, understanding between us.

Are you ready? Ok… Death Atlas was not as good as you think it was.

Don’t get me wrong, it was a good album overall, and I understand why it was the band’s big “breakthrough” (sure, their star had been on the rise ever since The Harvest Floor, if not before), but in hindsight it’s obvious – to me at least – that the band themselves weren’t quite sure what to do with their newfound fame, which led to at least a handful of tracks feeling as though they were being written more to fit someone else’s formula of what the band “should” be doing now that they were on the road to success.

But we’re not here to talk about their last record, we’re here to learn all about their new one, and the only real reason I mention it is because Terrasite is the album which Death Atlas was trying to be… without even trying.

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (BUT SHOULDN’T)

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May 032023

(Andy Synn catches you upon four meaty underground morsels from April)

Finally accepting that I/we would never cover most – let alone all – of the new releases each month/year was extremely liberating.

It meant that I could feel more comfortable just writing about whatever artists/albums caught my eye/ear, for whatever reason, with the hope that some of my compatriots would catch some of the stuff I missed, and the understanding that certain records are probably going to get enough coverage elsewhere that it won’t make a huge difference if none of us get around to covering them.

Sacrificing quantity for quality also means that you are – hopefully – going to get better, and more insightful, results from each review (something which, let’s be honest, those sites publishing 50+ reviews a week probably aren’t giving you) though I can’t necessarily guarantee that due to lack of time/sleep/mental capacity.

But, I promise, I’m going to try my best, which today means examining four very different albums from four very different bands.

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 158): LO!

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May 012023

Recommended for fans of: Conjurer, Soilent Green, (early) The Ocean

Australia’s Lo! are a difficult act to pin down.

That’s not to say their methods are totally unrecognisable – comparisons to the punchy/proggy Sludge-core of Burst or the harder-hitting side of Amenra are definitely valid (though not definitive by any means), as are any correlations you might observe to The Ocean circa-Fluxion/Aeolian, and there’s even a fair bit of Soilent Green‘s gut-heaving heaviness and venomous intensity (especially in the vocals) – but tagging them with just one genre, and then expecting them to stay within those boundaries, is a veritable fool’s errand.

Let’s just say that their sound sits somewhere between the darker, proggier end of Sludge, the heavier, more aggressive side of Post-Metal, and the harsher, more metallic form(s) of Hardcore, and let their music – including their fantastic new album, The Gleaners– speak for itself!

NIGHTMARER – DEFORMITY ADRIFT

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Apr 272023

(Andy Synn embraces the suffering with the upcoming new album from Nightmarer)

For some people the entire Dissonant Death Metal scene can be summed up by one band: Ulcerate.

It’s understandable. After all, not only did they effectively set the template for the style (at least in its modern incarnation) with 2011’s Destroyers of All, they then re-defined it once more with Stare Into Death… in 2020.

But I’m here to tell you that there’s far, far more to the Disso-Death movement than that, from similarly foundational records such as Flourishing‘s The Sum of All Fossils and Ageless Oblivion‘s Penthos, to genre-expanding albums from Ingurgitating Oblivion and Light Dweller, to promising debuts from potential future-leaders like Growth, Barús, and Aeviterne.

And then there’s Nightmarer, whose name should already be on your mind whenever you think about the best and brightest of the new wave of dissonant dissidents… and if they weren’t before, then they definitely will be after you hear Deformity Adrift.

PORENUT – MISLIVES

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Apr 252023

(Andy Synn continues his streak of brilliant Black Metal bands/albums with the “new” one from Porenut)

Some of you may have noticed a trend over the last several weeks, where I’ve almost exclusively written about Black Metal (most frequently erring towards the weirder end of the spectrum too).

Looking ahead, however, I can see a lot more Death Metal and/or Sludge-related content coming down the pipeline, so it looks like I’llbe switching things up sooner, rather than later.

It would be remiss of me, however, not to take this opportunity to write something about the recently-released new album from perennial outsiders Porenut, especially since it happens to be a real dark-horse candidate for best Black Metal album of the year (so far).

CHROME WAVES – EARTH WILL SHED ITS SKIN

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Apr 202023

(Andy Synn continues our long-running relationship with Chicago’s Chrome Waves, whose new album is set for release next week)

It’s crazy, when you think about it, just how long we’ve been writing about Chrome Waves, publishing our very first post about the group – then made up of The Atlas Moth‘s Stavros Giannopolous, ex-Nachtmystium guitarist Jeff Wilson, and former The Gates of Slumber drummer Bob Fouts (RIP) – in December 2011.

And while things have certainly changed quite a bit since then – the group essentially began all over again in 2018, with Wilson and Amiensus vocalist/guitarist James Benson forming the new core of the band’s ever-evolving line-up, which now also features bassist Zion Meager and drummer Garry Naples – we’ve continued to follow their career with both fascination and appreciation aplenty over the years.

But what’s particularly fascinating about their upcoming fourth album, Earth Will Shed Its Skin, is the way in which it attempts to weave the two most distinctive aspects of the band’s sound – the cathartic “Post-Black Metal” side that appeals to fans of Tombs, Deafheaven, and the like, and the shoegaze-y Alt-Rock side that recalls the best of acts like Hum and Catherine Wheel – into a single, coherent whole.

Does it succeed? Or does it shatter under the weight of everything it’s trying to achieve? Let’s find out!

CISZA – SHE YEARNS FOR OTHER WORLDS

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Apr 192023

(Andy Synn breaks his silence on the first full-length album from Poland’s Cisza)

Ok, I promise… this is going to be the last of the Black Metal oddities that I write about for a while.

Probably. Maybe. Almost certainly.

That being said, I couldn’t let the opportunity pass by without writing about Cisza‘s intriguing debut album.

After all, while it may not be as overtly “odd” as most of the releases I’ve covered recently it is, however, a record which certain people are more likely to deny actually is Black Metal, due to the fact that its blend of echoing tremolo melodies and rigid rhythmic patterns errs closer towards the punchy, Post-Black approach of bands like Agrypnie, Downfall of Gaia, and Harakiri for the Sky, than it does anything remotely “trve” or “kvlt”.

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