Jun 042024
 

(Andy Synn catches up with four albums from a mammoth May that you might have overlooked)

It was my immense good fortune to spend a good chunk of May travelling and seeing bands, first with a trip to Seattle for another excellent edition of North West Terrorfest, and then a jaunt to Baltimore to sample the delights of another Maryland Deathfest.

And since my travels gave me an opportunity to read and listen to music, I decided to make the most of it by re-immersing myself in a few of my favourite albums from the last few decades, with the result being that I probably ended up listening to fewer new releases last month than you might have come to expect.

That doesn’t mean I’ve been completely out of the loop, by any means (just give that handy “Andy Synn” tag a quick click and you’ll see that I still wrote a bunch of reviews, including several designed to cover our down-time during both the above festivals), it’s just that there’s probably going to be a few more “catching up” pieces to come after this one as well (most notably a review of the new Árstíðir Lífsins, whenever I get around to it).

As always, however, I’d like to begin a new month with four favourites from last month which I think deserve a bit more attention and acclaim, so let’s not waste any more time and just get right down to it, shall we?

Continue reading »

May 022024
 

Tomorrow is another Bandcamp Friday, and I had enough time to get ahead of the game today with a few selections that might help drain your bank account tomorrow. Actually, it’s more than a few — new singles and videos from 11 bands, spanning a very broad spectrum of music.

GAEREA (Portugal)

We begin with an intense new stand-alone single from Gaerea. As the band explain, “‘World Ablaze‘ tells the story of a man who has lived all his life inside a cage. He knows that one day he will be set free and experience the world with its true colors. Unfortunately, he also knows that day will be his last hours alive. It’s a song about desire, hope and freedom. A dance between life and death, hope and despair”. Continue reading »