Jun 162021
 

 

We’re not paid by the word around here (we’re not paid anything around here). But if we were, I wouldn’t make enough from this post to buy a cheap beer. Being short on time today, I’ve resorted to what I seem to be doing with increasing frequency in these round-ups, i.e., just foisting music and videos on you without commentary, artwork, or links.

Rest assured, however, that I’m foisting the following songs and films for a reason — because I think they’re worth your time. Or at least some of them will be worth your time, while others might not be your genre-cup of tea. I don’t expect that everyone out there will be as small-c catholic in their tastes as I am.

I did have enough time to briefly summarize the release info for the records that include the music I’ve chosen — or, regarding the first item, the artwork I’ve chosen, because there’s no music yet from that album. Continue reading »

Apr 132018
 

 

(We present Andy Synn’s review of the new album by California-based Our Place of Worship Is Silence, which is being released today by Translation Loss Records., and features striking cover art by Wrest of Leviathan.)

 

When you get right down to the beating, bleeding heart of things, a band is really just an organic machine, a biological mechanism of meat and metal, driven by electrical impulses and instinctual imperatives to procreate and disseminate its memetic ideas as far and as wide as possible.

This is something that Our Place of Worship is Silence seem to have grasped on an innate level with their vicious and hate-fuelled second album, With Inexorable Suffering, which finds the deadly duo simultaneously fleshing out their gruesome sound whilst also stripping it back to its most lethally efficient form. Continue reading »

Feb 122018
 

 

The flood of outstanding new metal is unceasing. I actually wouldn’t mind a break — not long, mind you, maybe a week or 10 days of absolutely no new music at all. But since that won’t happen, I’ll continue doing my best to tread water and keep my flaring nostrils above the tide.

Here’s a collection of new tracks that I sifted from those that appeared late last week. In genre terms, they’re all over the map.

GLORIOR BELLI

It has gotten increasingly difficult to predict what Glorior Belli is going to do from album to album, or even from song to song. The one you’ll find below is “Deserters From Eden“, the first single off this French band’s new album, The Apostates. Continue reading »

Oct 192016
 

Reviews in Haikus

 

(We present another edition of Andy Synn’s three-line reviews.)

Well, it appears that “Reviews in Haikus” has become a regular monthly affair somehow, so I thought to myself… why not use it to quickly touch base with a triptych of albums I probably won’t get chance to review properly any time soon? Continue reading »

Oct 162016
 

cdf-sunday-morning3

 

I started this Sunday morning in Oakland earlier than I would have liked, but it had its compensations. Grabbing coffee and my smokes, I sat for nearly an hour along the Oakland waterfront enjoying the peacefulness of it, with no one else around except a hopeful seagull and a swooping flock of starlings.

Yesterday was not peaceful, but it was electrifying. It was the second day of this year’s edition of California Deathfest. Between a late lunch, a dinner break, and my inability to physically make it to the bitter end, I only caught about two-thirds of the 12 bands on the line-up. And as was true of yesterday’s write-up on Day One, I’m not going to take the time to write reviews of the performances. Instead, here’s what I’ve done: Continue reading »

Sep 032016
 

KYPCK-Zero

 

Yesterday, to end the work week, I picked new (or newish) songs from five bands to recommend out of a much bigger group of new stuff I thought was good. To celebrate Saturn’s Day, I’ve picked four more from that original group and added one older EP that I finally got around to checking out.

KYPCK

Formed back in 2007 and naming themselves after the Russian city of the same name, KYPCK (pronounced “kursk”) are Finnish but led by a vocalist (Erkki Seppänen) who is fluent in Russian and sings in that language. His bandmates include two former members of Sentenced: guitarists Sami Lopakka (who uses a six-string guitar made from an AK-47 assault rifle) and Sami Kukkohovi, along with bassist Jaakko Ylä-Rautio and drummer Antti Karihtal. Their discography, such as it existed at the end of 2014, was the subject of the 53rd edition of THE SYNN REPORT at our site. Continue reading »