Andy Synn Archives - Page 6 of 151

KRIGSGRAV – STORMCALLER

Sep 162025

(Andy Synn is here to tell you whether to grab an umbrella, or just run for cover, when the new album from Krigsgrav arrives this Friday)

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but… sometimes it seems like we spend most of our time here at NCS playing catch-up.

But the key word there is “most”.

You see, while it’s not easy to stay on top of all the new releases every week (although Islander does a damn good job of at least keeping track of new songs and/or album announcements) we do still manage to at least get a few reviews out each month in advance of their respective release dates.

And when the band is an old friend of the blog – figuratively speaking – like Krigsgrav (whose new album is out this Friday) we try to make a special effort to deliver our verdict in a more timely manner.

THE GREAT WHITE NOTHING – PASSAGE I: MELANCHOLIA

Album Reviews No Responses »

Sep 152025

(Andy Synn travels deep into The Great White Nothing… and likes what he finds there)

Sometimes it seems like we spend most of our time here at NCS playing catch-up.

And the reason for this is… well, we kind of do.

After all, there’s just so much released each week/month/year that it’s impossible to stay on top, or ahead, of it all, and often by the time we find something that really grabs our attention (and/or find the time to actually get some writing done in between all our other commitments) the release date for whatever it is has already passed.

Case in point, the debut album from Belgian Post-Metal/Post-Hardcore/Post-Black quintet The Great White Nothing was actually released on the 31st of August, but I didn’t stumble across it until over a week later, and then didn’t find time to sit down and properly pen a few thoughts about it until now.

But, as the unofficial mantra of this site goes, better late than never… right?

DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT – INNERN

Album Reviews No Responses »

Sep 102025

(Andy Synn takes a look deep inside the new album from Der Weg Einer Freiheit, out Friday)

I recently saw someone joking online – although, truthfully, it was more of a wry observation – that “true Black Metal is fuelled by ennui“.

And although this statement was slightly tongue-in-cheek (made in response to one of those oh-so-serious “Black Metal is only for those filled with true evil and hate” types) well… there might just be something to it.

After all, we’re talking about a genre which – for all the subsequent mythologising around its early days – was started by a bunch of angry, angsty teenagers chafing against the rigid strictures of religious morality and staid suburban life that left them with no real outlet for their emotions, or any real direction for the future… and if that’s not a perfect recipe for “listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occupation or excitement” then I don’t know what is.

And while some may have questioned how “true” Der Weg Einer Freiheit‘s particular brand of intensely introspective, blast-driven Black Metal actually is… there’s no question that when it comes to exploring and expressing this internal strife and struggle (heck, their new album literally translates as “Inside”) they’ve never been afraid to take a stark, unflinching look at their own inner workings.

BEST OF BRITISH: ADUR / CULT BURIAL / TRUDGER

Album Reviews No Responses »

Sep 082025

(Andy Synn has three more slabs of home-grown heaviness to recommend today)

If you’ve been keeping track recently you may have noticed a slight dip in my output frequency, mostly because I’m having to also focus on recording the last few vocals and bass-lines for our upcoming release (which we’re aiming to have out towards the end of November).

Unfortunately (for you, not so much for me) I’m likely going to be even more busy for the next few weeks, not only finishing off the recording process but also getting ready for my upcoming wedding so… well, I’ll do what I can to help keep the lights on around here, but you might be seeing even less from me for a little while.

That being said, I’m not going to let another opportunity to highlight some home-grown heroes pass me by, so prepare yourselves for three more delicious metallic morsels which represent the “Best of British”.

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (BUT SHOULDN’T)

Album Reviews No Responses »

Sep 042025

(Andy Synn has four suggestions, taken from a long list, of stuff to check out from August)

August was a busy month for me, for a lot of different reasons, which is why it feels like I missed out on covering a lot of artists/albums I normally would have made/found more time for.

Those artists include – but are not limited to – Arrows (though at least Islander was able to give that a bit of a write-up), Innumerable Forms (hopefully someone will get to that?), Lowheaven (which I wish I had more space for… but Slow Crush took their slot in the end), Pilgrimage, Ethereal Wound (which I’m more and more gutted not to be including), Spire of Lazarus, Hexrot, and Porenut (whose new album I still might review, possibly next week) amongst many, many more, so I encourage you all to go check them out if/when you have time after reading this article.

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 186): MODERN LIFE IS WAR

Album Reviews, THE SYNN REPORT No Responses »

Sep 012025

Recommended for fans of: Comeback Kid, Shai Hulud, Rise Against

One of the best things about a band announcing a new album – especially a band as seminal to their scene as this – is that it often acts as a prompt to go back and re-listen to their previous works, which often (in my case, at least) results in you developing a new appreciation for their earlier material.

Case in point, when prodigal Punk/Hardcore legends Modern Life Is War announced their upcoming fifth album (set for release this Friday, some twelve years since their last full-length record) I took it upon myself to revisit their discography just in case I wanted to write something about them to commemorate the occasion.

And not only did I end up rediscovering the band – while also developing a greater appreciation for the impact that legendary acts like Minor Threat, Rancid and Black Flag have had on their music – but I also found myself connecting even more deeply this time around with their intensely personal, yet intimately relatable, lyrics and their distinctly dystopian (yet not hopeless) take on modern life (it’s war, don’t you know?).

Now, a word of warning… I’m off to Islay this weekend to spend a couple of days touring some of the island’s many distilleries (it’s my stag-do, if you were curious), so this article will be a little different to most of its predecessors as I’m going to focus my attention mostly on my favourite songs on each of the band’s albums, rather than trying to cover them all comprehensively.

But the one positive side-effect of this of course is that – if you like what you’re about to read and/or hear – you’ll still have lots to discover and appreciate on your own time!

SHORT BUT SWEET – ANTI RITUAL / BACKSTABBED / HARROWIST

SHORT BUT SWEET No Responses »

Aug 262025

(Andy Synn highlights three more short-but-sweet releases for you to sink your teeth into)

Between work, band, and my personal life I’m not going to have much time to write this week, hence this is likely to be one of only two articles you’ll be seeing from me.

Which means I’m going to have to do my best to make them both count… and what better way than by trying to stick to my ongoing (and continually failing) promise to try and cover more EPs?

So, without further ado, here’s three “short but sweet” bursts of Hardcore-inspired venom and vigour from Anti Ritual (Denmark), Backstabbed (Germany), and Harrowist (Austria).

JUSTICE FOR THE DAMNED – STAY RELENTLESS

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Aug 222025

(Andy Synn gets in the ring once more, ready for another beating from Justice For The Damned)

Did you know that Amazon was originally called “Relentless”?

It’s true, and while I’m glad they didn’t stay relentless – as that would have really confused things SEO-wise for this review – that little factoid does provide a bit of extra insight into the organisation’s unapologetically brutal business practices that they’ve used to beat down their competitors and crush all opposition.

And speaking of beat downs…

DEFACEMENT – DOOMED

Album Reviews No Responses »

Aug 202025

(Andy Synn contemplates chaos, and genre tags, with the new album from Defacement)

The genre tag “Post-” – as in “Post-Rock”, “Post-Hardcore”, “Post-Black Metal”, etc – is one of the most maligned (and often misunderstood) terms in music (according to some of the comments I’ve seen, anyway).

The thing is, while the initial idea behind “Post-Rock” was to take the fundamental elements of the genre – the distorted, crunchy guitars, the heavy, hooky rhythms, the bombastic, larger-than-life melodies – and separate them from their traditional structures and conventional constraints, allowing for more expansion, more experimentation, and more dynamic depth (especially in terms of pushing the classic “quiet/loud” dynamic even further) that’s often not how the “Post-” prefix has come to be used in recent years.

Let’s face it, the term “Post-Hardcore” is often just as synonymous with “Melodic Hardcore”, while a lot of “Post-Black Metal” artists are just Black Metal bands stealing directly from the tropes of “Post-Rock” (or vice-versa), and too many people in general just seem to use the term “Post-” when they actually mean something like “Progressive”, “Atmospheric”, or “Avant-Garde” (and we can argue about what those terms mean another time).

So perhaps we need to think of another way to talk about a band like Defacement – who have been wilfully and unapologetically deviating from the formula since 2018 – that properly reflects their ongoing attempts to deconstruct extremity in order to let something new, or at least something else, fill the gaps.

RENUNCIATION – MAKE BABYLON GREAT AGAIN

Album Reviews No Responses »

Aug 182025

(Andy Synn sets out to see just how “great” the new album from Renunciation, out now, actually is)

Look, if you’d asked me before now I would have sworn blind that I reviewed Autelmorte, the second album from Renunciation, back in 2022.

But, as it turns out, I only managed to mention them as part of my regular end of year round-up (where it seems a couple of you also discovered them).

Which makes it doubly fortunate that I randomly stumbled across their third album, Make Babylon Great Again, towards the end of last week, as not only do I get to review it but I also get a chance to properly introduce you all to their shamelessly infectious amalgam of blast-driven, hyper-melodic Black Metal and fret-melting, pulse-pounding Tech Death.

Older Entries Newer Entries