Feb 072025
 

(Andy Synn is here to correct some egregious oversights by the rest of the NCS crew)

Well, I guess it’s finally time to draw a line under last year… in fact, it’s probably well past time… but before we consign 2024 to the great internet graveyard I wanted to get in one last edition of “2024’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs” focussing on some of the coolest and most killer cuts that my buddies Islander and DGR missed.

Credit where credit is due, however, the two of them did end up featuring a couple of tracks I assumed would end up on my list (namely “Dehumanize Me” by Candy and “Blackwater” by Bloom Dream) but the rest of these ten selections (I decided that was a nice limit, considering between them Islander and DGR already highlighted over 100 tracks) come from artists/albums/EPs they didn’t touch in their lists.

I’ve also resisted the temptation to include anything by my own band… although if I had it probably would have been “Until Morale Improves” (which, you know, you should definitely check out)… or any bands I’m too close to personally, but that still left a pretty massive “short list” (short being a relative term) to choose from, so whittling it down to just ten options meant a whole heap of songs were left behind on the cutting room floor.

But, hopefully, what you’re about to hear will encourage you to further check out the rest of these records.

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Dec 312024
 

Recommended for fans of: Ultha, Wiegedood, Altar of Plagues

Well, it seems that we have once again completed another rotation around the sun.

And so, with thoughts of celestial cycles and perpetual cosmic patterns at the forefront of my mind I present to you the last Synn Report of 2024, wherein we journey deep into the soul and psyche of Tempestarii.

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Dec 132020
 

 

I continue to fall far behind in my listening due to a year-end crunch at my fucking day job, which will continue through the coming week. What little free time I have to devote to NCS between now and this time next week will be consumed by premieres and the continuation of our annual LISTMANIA series (later today I’m sharing a couple more lists from “big platform” web sites, and then we’ll have more lists from our writers and guests in the week ahead).

But fortune smiled on me, and it didn’t take me long to find what I decided to share with you in this column. Enjoy!

TEMPESTARII (U.S.)

Deathwards Xibalba” is the long opening track to Chaos at Feast, the new second album by Tempestarii, an Idaho-based black metal band who picked a great name for themselves, because listening to their music is very much like being subsumed in frightening, wholly engulfing tempests — or perhaps, given the dramaturgical trappings of their music, like witnessing firsthand the magical storm of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Continue reading »