Apr 232024
 

(Andy Synn enters the devil’s den that is the new album from Terminal Nation, out next week)

As someone whose first serious foray into “alternative” music involved getting seriously into Hardcore, I’ve been loving a lot of the new wave of Death Metal/Hardcore crossover acts.

Sure, there’s a few bands out there who’ve definitely taken the trend as an opportunity to play down to the worst aspects of the two genres (and the less said about them the better, in my opinion, as they’ve already gotten enough hype for their lazy, lowest-common-denominator bullshit) but the likes of Tribal Gaze, Xibalba  Slowbleed, and Fuming Mouth have all made a big impression on me over the last few years.

And then, of course, there’s Terminal Nation, whose previous album (and subsequent split EP with Kruelty) I was a big fan of, and who are now set to make even more waves with Echoes of the Devil’s Den.

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Mar 162024
 


A hell of a party awaits below….

All the “big” names in this Saturday roundup of new songs and videos were suggested by my old friend and fellow NCS slave DGR — “big” in quotation marks because no surface-dwelling listener would remotely consider the music “radio friendly”.

But I still decided to throw in a few more subterranean offerings of my own choosing, all of it presented in alphabetical order by band name. That arrangement turned out to create some big twists and turns in the music.

ABORTED (Belgium)

First up, feast your eyes and ears on the music video for “Condemned To Rot” from Aborted‘s guest-studded new album Vault of Horrors. The guest stud on this one is Francesco Paoli from the NCS house band Fleshgod Apocalypse (does anyone remember when I used to call them that every time I mentioned them?). I’ll crib from my friend Andy‘s review of this album: Continue reading »

Jun 062022
 

(Andy Synn drops some heavy thoughts about the heavy new split EP from Terminal Nation and Kruelty)

Let me tell you something, I have always wanted to do a split with another band. I’ve just never been able to get the timing right or find the right collaborators.

And “collaborators” is certainly the key word here, because the very best of these sorts of releases (and some are definitely better than others) have a real collaborative spirit to them – whether that’s in the form of bands covering each others’ songs, guesting on each others’ tracks, or simply inspiring each other to be better.

Case in point, the new split from the USA’s Terminal Nation and Japan’s Kruelty certainly showcases both bands at their very best, offering up five phenomenally heavy tracks of caustic, crushing and cathartic “Hardcore-influenced Death Metal” (or “Death Metal-influenced Hardcore”… the difference is largely academic) which are practically guaranteed to inspire both neck-wrecking bouts of headbanging and some serious civil unrest.

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Aug 062020
 

 

(On August 7th 20 Buck Spin will release a new album by Arknasas heavyweights Terminal Nation, and in anticipation of that calamitous event Andy Synn wrote this review.)

I don’t know how things are where you are right now, dear reader, but here in the UK people are finding lots of different ways to cope with the uncertainty and upheaval caused by this goddamned pandemic.

Personally I’ve been lucky enough to be able to ride things out (so far at least) with relatively little disruption, and right now my plan is simply to go to the Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for this all to blow over.

In the meantime I’ve been alternatively amusing/tormenting myself by speculating what bands, and what tours, I’d most like to see when normal service finally resumes (whenever the that might be).

One line-up which I think would really bring the house down (possibly quite literally) would be if someone could pull together a triple-header of Misery Index (headlining), Xibalba (main support), and Terminal Nation, especially since the latter’s new album, Holocene Extinction, seems like it was purpose-built to deliver the sort of in-your-face impact that can only truly be appreciated live. Continue reading »