(Andy Synn presents three fresh flavours of heaviness for you to – hopefully – enjoy)
In light of how long and wordy my write-up of the newIngurgitating Oblivion was yesterday I decided that today I’d focus instead of a handful of shorter, and simpler, releases from recent weeks – both as a way of giving my brain a little bit of a rest and because I’ve been pretty lax about covering EPs this year.
So, let’s not waste any time and get right to it, shall we?
(Andy Synn engages his inner art critic as he plays host to the premiere of the brand new album from Ingurgitating Oblivion, set for release this Friday via Willowtip Records)
I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating – the word “masterpiece” doesn’t mean what you think it does.
While it’s often (all too often, in my opinion) used as an almost throw-away term to hype up whatever the latest flavour-of-the-month album happens to be getting the most buzz, the reality is that a true “masterpiece” is just that – it’s a piece of work demonstrating your mastery of your chosen artform, one which your peers all agree earns you the right to call yourself a “master” of your medium.
And, by any measure, Ingurgitating Oblivion already unveiled their masterpiece, in the form of 2017’s career-defining Vision Wallows in Symphonies of Light, quite a few years ago.
But here’s the thing they don’t tell you about producing a masterpiece… once you’ve done it once, you don’t have to do it again.
Sure, some artists do, but a lot of them take the opportunity, now that they’ve proved themselves, to take more creative risks and experiment with both form and function, to push the boundaries and expand their horizons, with an almost devil-may-care attitude as to what might happen.
And that’s exactly what Ingurgitating Oblivion have done with their new album, Ontology of Nought.
(Andy Synn drinks deep from the cosmic cauldron with the new album from Finnish doom-lords DÖ)
Have you ever seen the movie Mandy?
It’s a Prog Rock Stoner Doom Death Metal revenge story that seems to exist on an alternate plane of reality just widdershins to this one… and is easily one of my favourite films of all time.
And something tells me that Finnish audio-freaks DÖ would definitely love it (in fact, I am willing to bet they’ve seen it, and loved it, already) because their new album, Unversum, possesses that same sort of psychoactive, synaesthetic, widescreen intensity… albeit with significantly less Nicolas Cage.
(Come and learn why the new album from Typhonian, out Friday on Transcending Obscurity, has reaffirmed Andy Synn‘s love for Death Metal)
Do I like Death Metal?
It seems like a pretty dumb question – I mean, I’ve toured with Hour of Penance, Blood Red Throne, The Monolith Deathcult, opened for Cryptopsy, Mithras, Darkane, and more – so of course I do!
But I get where people are coming from when they ask this question, because when it comes to many of the current “big” bands in the Death Metal scene… well, I’ve generally been a little more guarded with when, where, and how I dole out praise than a lot of other writers.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve thrown a lot of love at artists like Tomb Mold, Ulthar, and Bæst, and am eagerly awaiting new albums from both Tribal Gaze and Ingurgitating Oblivion (though, spoiler alert, I’ve already heard the latter and will be reviewing it later this month), but I can’t help but feel like a lot of the more notorious names are playing it far too safe, happy to regurgitate the same recycled riffs and second-hand song ideas with only the most minor of variations (if any), because they know their audience will eat it up anyway.
Luckily, for every derivative disappointment that comes across my desk there’s almost always someone else doing something a little bit more interesting (to me anyway) – and while it was Typhonian‘s previous album (which you can, and should, read more about here) which initially piqued my curiosity, with The Gate of the Veiled Beyond they’ve really grabbed my attention.
(Andy Synn gives his first impressions of the opening track from Gigan‘s upcoming new album, which we are premiering below in advance of the album’s October 25 release by Willowtip Records.)
If you’re not familiar with the extra-dimensional extremity of Chicago’s Gigan then you might want to check out both my Synn Report on the band from way back in 2016 and my review of their fourth album, Undulating Waves of Rainbiotic Iridescence, from 2017 (which was the last time we heard from them).
Trust me, you’ll want to be fully prepared for what you’re about to experience.
Because going into this one blind could well be hazardous to your health.
(Andy Synn highlights one of his favourite new discoveries of the year)
One thing I’m sure you’ll notice, if you spend any amount of time online, is how often people complain that “there’s no good new music any more“.
They’re wrong, of course, but it occurs to me that there’s a cruel (and dispiriting) irony to the fact that the proliferation of streaming services, which should – in theory ay least- grant their users access to a seemingly endless and almost infinitely varied array of new artists and albums, has ultimately, through the use of increasingly solipsistic and artificially-unintelligent algorithms, ended up stifling a lot of peoples’ ability, or willingness, to actively go out and look for new music themselves.
If you’re reading this, however – congratulations, you’re probably not one of those people.
And your reward for that is that you get to listen to the disgustingly doomy, dissonance-drenched Death-Sludge of Canada’s Mind Mold and their new album, Erosive.
(Today our man Andy Synn steps up to tackle one of the most difficult reviews he’s ever written)
How exactly, let me ask you, does one even begin to talk about – let alone judge – an album like this?
Let me be clear, the untimely demise of the band’s infamous (and seemingly irreplaceable) frontman Trevor Strnad hit a lot of us here at NCS very hard – hell, I was the one who volunteered to pen a few words in tribute after his passing – but it obviously hit his bandmates harder than almost anyone, and I don’t think anyone would have blamed them if they’d chosen to hang up their spurs in the aftermath.
But, as it turns out, giving up wasn’t in the cards for these Detroit death-dealers, who are set to solidify their return with the release of their tenth album – the first one to feature long-time guitarist (and last-remaining original member) Brian Eschbach taking over as the group’s vocalist, as well as the recording debut of the newly-formed guitar-duo of Brandon Ellis and the returning Ryan Knight – in just over two weeks from now.
With all that in mind then, perhaps the best thing I can do with this review is simply set your expectations appropriately, as while many (if not most) of us may have been hoping that the band’s big comeback would be an unqualified success and an unparalleled triumph over tragedy… the truth is that Servitude is not that.
Or maybe it is. Maybe I’m looking at it wrong. Maybe its very existence – it’s still a good album, just not a great one, after all – is enough of a triumph on its own… especially considering that it almost didn’t happen at all!
(Andy Synn goes back to the front with the new album from German fusiliers Kanonenfieber)
War… war never changes.
And neither, in some ways, do Kanonenfieber, whose long-awaited and highly-anticipated second album, Die Urktatastrophie (transl. “The Original/Primal Catastrophe”) comes out next week (September 20, to be exact).
And yet… and yet… those of us who’ve been marching alongside the band over the years, slogging through the mud and blood of Menschenmühle (2021), then going on to join the Yankee Division to fight against Der Füsilier (2022), only to find ourselves staring deep into the abyss as a U-Bootsmann (2023), will know from experience that although the band (strictly speaking a solo project, I know) may not have changed, their tactics have definitely, albeit subtly, evolved with each new engagement.
In particular, there’s been a slow but steady shift in focus to incorporate more of Death Metal’s riff-centric heft and rhythmic hookiness with each and every release, with the result being that the group’s career has, up to a point at least, followed a similar arc to their Dutch cousins (and similar WWI scholars) God Dethroned.
But whereas the latter’s most recent album ended up falling a little (or, more accurately, a lot) short of achieving its objectives, the anti-war anthems of Die Urkatastrophe have no such problems hitting their target.
(Andy Synn is ready to be swept off his feet again by The Howling Wind)
Look, by now I’m sure we’re all aware of the big surprise revelation of last week… that’s right, I’m talking about the unexpected, world-shaking return of Linkin Park Pyrrhon The Howling Wind!
Sure, it’s only been two years since their last release – 2022’s Oak EP – but it’s been eleven years since the duo of Tim Call and Ryan Lipynsky actually created a full-length album together (with 2019’s Shadow Tentacles being a solo effort by Lipynsky under the THW moniker).
So, with that in mind, the pair’s new album, Through the Eyes, Past the Sun, has a lot to live up to.
(Andy Synn has a new favourite artist/album he needs to share with you, in the form of Norna)
The phrase “Post Metal” is one of those genre terms which doesn’t necessarily have an agreed definition.
Some people use it to refer mostly to what are, in essence, Post-Rock bands who’ve decided to use certain more metallic elements (usually meaning a more heavily distorted guitar tone along with the occasional burst of blastbeats) while others reserve it for bands who exist on the more atmospheric end of the Sludge/Hardcore spectrum (most of the big names in the scene started out like this, for example).
For Swedish trio Norna, however, their approach to “Post-Metal” is all about attempting to refine things down to their raw essence, beneath and beyond the flashy technicality and mindless machismo so often still associated with the genre, to achieve the Platonic ideal of pure auditory weight and distortion-driven emotion.
And while their debut didn’t quite manage to achieve this – admittedly impossible – task, the band’s self-titled second album comes closer than most to achieving artistic apotheosis in molten metallic form.