THE SYNN REPORT (PART 165): BULL ELEPHANT

 THE SYNN REPORT  No Responses »
Nov 302023
 

Recommended for fans of: Yob, Baroness, Boss Keloid

It takes balls… huge, pendulous balls… to go all in on not just one concept album but a full-on trilogy, especially when your creative concept begins with the story of an undead elephant, resurrected by Nazi occultists and infused with Lovecraftian energies, which then (due to some timely intervention by a vengeful shaman) turns against its masters and goes on a fascist-stomping rampage… and then only gets crazier from there.

It’s good then that enigmatic UK unit Bull Elephant have the necessary testicular fortitude required to tackle such an epic (and, let’s be honest, utterly ridiculous) story, as well as the necessary instrumental abilities and songwriting skills to ensure that their pachyderm-based Prog Doom (which also incorporates touches of Sludge, Death Metal, and Thrash) is more than up to the task in a musical sense as well.

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BEST OF BRITISH 2020: BULL ELEPHANT / INGESTED / LUNA’S CALL

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Aug 112020
 


Luna’s Call

(Here we have another 2020 edition of Andy Synn‘s series of reviews focusing on music coming out of the UK, with another three albums on the table today.)

This year may have been a real motherfucker in many, many ways, but the music coming out of the UK has, arguably, never been better.

As a matter of fact, my shortlist for my “Critical Top Ten” currently includes three, possibly four, UK bands who’ve raised the bar for themselves, and the rest of the scene, with their latest records… one of whom I’m featuring here today.

So, without further ado, here are three artists/albums who represent the very best of British, two of which will be released this Friday, the other you’ll have to wait until the end of the month to hear in full! Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: REBEL WIZARD, KÖRGULL THE EXTERMINATOR, INFESTICIDE, UNDEAD, BULL ELEPHANT, VERMILIA

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  5 Responses »
Jul 112020
 

 

If you’re a fan of Enslaved, Pallbearer, Kataklysm, Black Crown Initiate, Oceans of Slumber, surely you know about the new singles they released over the last few days from their next albums (most with videos), and if you didn’t know, now you do (just follow those hyperlinks to listen and watch). You probably also saw the announcement of a new Napalm Death album and Decibel’s “Get Behind the Mask” feature with photos of 140 masked-up artists.

But rather than provide commentary about those widely touted events I decided to turn my piggish snout toward the sniffing out of truffles your own snouts might not have detected yet, which is mainly how we use our olfactory organs at NCS.

REBEL WIZARD

Rebel Wizard‘s new album Magickal Mystical Indifference was just released yesterday by Prosthetic Records, and to celebrate the occasion they’ve also just released a colorful, metal AF new video (made by Exotic Corpse) for an album track named “raiseth up all those that be bowed down“. Continue reading »

UNSUNG HEROES OF 2019: BULL ELEPHANT / DIMAEON / TRIANGLE FACE

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Feb 192020
 

 

(In this article Andy Synn combines reviews of three fine, stylistically divergent albums released in 2019 — by Bull Elephant (UK), Dimaeon (Netherlands), and Triangle Face (UK).)

Ok, Ok… I promise this will (probably) be the last time I go on about albums from last year that you and I may have otherwise skipped over or missed out on.

After all, it’s getting towards the end of February now, and the deluge of new releases and upcoming albums is really starting to ramp up, so if I don’t want to fall behind (any more than I already have done) then I really need to start focussing on 2020.

But I couldn’t let these three artists/albums pass by without making a bit of fuss over them, as while I didn’t get around to covering them when they were first released, I’ve spent quite a lot of time listening to them all recently, and needed to share my enthusiasm with you! Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: RATTENFÄNGER, SEVENTH CIRCLE, T.O.M.B., LAPSARIAN, BULL ELEPHANT

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Nov 022019
 

 

Hope the weekend is treating you right so far, and will continue to do so. As quasi-promised yesterday (when it comes to NCS, most of my promises are quasi) I managed to find time to hurl a few more newly forged chunks of metallic extremity at your head, and made an effort to have them come in differing shapes, even though they’re all heavy and jagged.

RATTENFÄNGER

In September I included the first advance track from Rattenfänger’s new album (Geisslerlieder) in another one of these round-ups (here), and now there’s another one out in the world. Continue reading »