(Andy Synn presents another collection of British artists/albums he thinks you should check out)
Good afternoon kids (and kids of all ages).
Are you ready to learn?
Well, today’s edition of the “Best of British” is brought to you by the letter “T” and the number “3”.
So shut up and start paying attention. There will be a test.
(Andy Synn encourages you to give Dreamwell‘s new album – out this Friday – a chance)
Before you go any further, I encourage you all to go read what I wrote about Dreamwell‘s previous album, which was one of my favourite records of 2021.
Finished?
Well, now let me tell you why – as good as Modern Grotesque was – In My Saddest Dreams… is even better.
(Andy Synn catches up with NCS favourites Sulphur Aeon following the release of their fourth album)
I doubt there’ll be many people willing to argue against the statement that Sulphur Aeon have long-since proven themselves to be one of the best bands in Death Metal – hell, in Metal in general – operating today.
After making an impressive impact with their 2012 debut, Swallowed by the Ocean’s Tide, they then blew practically everyone away with the inhuman intensity of 2015’s Gateway to the Antisphere, only to then turn around and knock people’s socks off all over again with the more epic and melodic strains of The Scythe of Cosmic Chaos in 2018.
So to say that the band have set themselves a very high bar would be an understatement, and I want to make it clear that when I tell you that Seven Crowns & Seven Seals isn’t quite the quantum leap that …Scythe… was from Gateway… (or Gateway… was from Swallowed…) that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It simply means that Sulphur Aeon are finally settling into their own strange and sinister skin.
(Andy Synn offers his thoughts on the new album from South Africa’s Crow Black Sky)
While the whole “two year album cycle” thing is fine for some bands (though I’d say it’s more common amongst bands signed to more prominent labels) not every artist works, or should work, to the same schedule.
Case in point, Cape Town’s Crow Black Sky released their first album back in 2010, but then waited eight more years before releasing the follow-up, Sidereal Light, Vol. One.
In hindsight you almost wonder why the band didn’t change their name in the intervening period (though I can understand why not, since Crow Black Sky is an excellent name) as Volume One represented a significant shift in sound for the group, moving them towards a “cosmic” Black Metal sound that was as rich in atmosphere as it was in aggression… and all the better for it.
And now, after five long years, we finally get to hear where this path has taken them with the recent release of Sidereal Light, Vol. Two.
(Andy Synn offers his thoughts on the upcoming new album by Body Void)
Continuing with this week’s theme of posting articles about the most abrasive, horrible music of the year… here’s a few words (and then a few more words) about Body Void‘s most abrasive and horrible album yet.
Consider yourselves warned.
(Andy Synn highlights four albums from last month you need to listen to)
There’s two things you need to know about this column.
So, with all that in mind, let’s see what this latest edition of “Things You May Have Missed” has to offer, shall we?
Recommended for fans of: Alcest, Oathbreaker, So Hideous
First off, I have to apologise for the lateness of this particular edition of The Synn Report – I simply didn’t have time to write very much while I was overseas last week.
However, considering that Svalbard are releasing their fourth – and arguably finest – album today, it seemed like an opportune time to take a deep-dive into their discography (and, potentially, reassess some of the words I’ve written about them previously).
There’s no question that the Bristol-born quarter have proved somewhat divisive at times – their punky fusion of Post-Metal, Post-Hardcore, and Post-Black often causing consternation amongst the “purists”, while their poignant, painfully honest lyrics have sometimes been accused of being a little too on the nose – but the raw energy, and equally raw emotion, underpinning everything they do is something that simply cannot be denied.
So if you’re a looking for a band who wear their collective heart on their sleeve, but also don’t pull their punches – musically or lyrically – then Svalbard should be just what you’ve been searching for.
(Andy Synn catches up with a band who we haven’t checked in with in quite a while)
Change, as they say, is the one universal constant. But that doesn’t mean that change is always good. Or, at least, it’s not always perceived (or received) that way.
Case in point, following the departure of the Sandagger brothers in 2009 Mercenary were – rightly or wrongly – criticised for, ahem, metamorphosing from the distinctive Prog/Power/Death Metal hybrid they used to be into a more groove-focussed, Metalcore-ish “Nu-Melodeath” act in the vein of bands like Caliban, Deadlock, etc.
Much of the blame was placed, unfairly, on bassist (and now primary vocalist) René Pedersen – mostly, it seemed, because his singing style was supposedly less “epic” and more “emo” than his predecessor – even though the core guitar duo of Jakob Mølbjerg and Martin Buus (who have, at the time of writing this, now been playing together for over twenty years!) remained unchanged.
But the truth of the matter is that there was no one person responsible for the band’s downturn in fortunes, it’s simply that, for a while, they didn’t seem to know quite who they were, or who they wanted to be, any more.
But on their new album Mercenary sound more like… well, Mercenary… than they have in years!
(We’re honoured to be hosting the premiere of Rorcal‘s new album in advance of its September 29 release by Hummus Records, with words by our own Andy Synn)
Success, or so they say, can be a double-edged sword.
What, for example, do you do after releasing an album which – in my opinion, at least – is both the very definition of a true cult classic and one of the best records of the year? How do you follow something like that?
Some bands double down on what already worked. Others switch things up and try a different approach.
But Rorcal… they just reached even deeper down into that aching, infinitely empty pit of gnawing hunger and nameless horror that exists within their collective soul and tore loose another spiteful slab of auditory darkness that they chose to call Silence.
(Andy Synn unveils his thoughts about the recently-released return from Deadspace)
Our relationship – and I should be clear that by our I also mean my – with the band known as Deadspace has been a long and rewarding one.
Over the years we’ve seen (and heard) them grow from their disconsolate, DSBM-inspired roots to adopt a darker and more symphonic-laced sound, and then an altogether more aggressive approach, culminating in the release of A Portrait of Sacrificial Scars, arguably their best, and seemingly final, album in 2020.
I say “seemingly” because although, at the time, it did appear that …Portrait… would be the group’s last work – and we were, to be certain, saddened to hear this – it turns out that rumours of the band’s demise were greatly exaggerated, with the release of the Within Haunted Chambers EP (which contained three significantly heavier reworkings/re-recordings of earlier songs) being the first sign that Deadspace were definitely not as dead as they had seemed.
And now, finally, we get to find out exactly what it is that brought them back to life.