Review by Sonny for Waste of Space Orchestra - Syntheosis (2019)

By now everyone knows the story of the genesis of Syntheosis, a collaboration between Oranssi Pazuzu (one of my favourite black metal bands) and Dark Buddha Rising (about whom, before this release, I knew absolutely nothing) for a Roadburn commision that was intended as a live only entity, but took on a life of it's own, finally resulting in this studio release. Musically it's extremely difficult to pigeon-hole, as can be evidenced by the disparate genre tags on this very site - I'll go with blackened, spacey, atmo-sludge, heavily-influenced by the 1970s, of particularly King Crimson, but there are also traces of Hawkwind and even Tangerine Dream in there. The three vocalists allow for great variety from gurgling black metal shrieks to the almost post-punk female-sounding singing on Wake up the Possessor and the twin drummers hammer out some extremely compelling tribalistic rhythms. I have found myself increasingly drawn towards albums that focus heavily on atmosphere and this certainly falls into that bracket, the whole feeling like the soundtrack to a journey through some unsettlingly dark dimension similar to the one visited by the Event Horizon in the film of the same name. I must admit that whilst listening to the album I found it extremely easy to imagine it being performed live and although this is an impressive listen, I can't help feeling it is even more so in a live setting. One of 2019's must-hear metal albums.