Synnove
“The Whore And The Bride”
(Soundmass)

On the face of it, pretty much straight forward Aussie black metal from down under although they make notable use of church chorus and lusty female backing vocals, besides the token screeching vox (which may be actually higher than the female ones!), trademark monotone guitar sound and up temo to hyperspeed drumming. What sets Synnove apart, however, is that the band all appear to be Christians centred around the husband / wife team of Brad and Stephanie Bessell (don’t they make a lovely couple). Confused? Well, these rebellious Christians - who wear corpse paint - are none to happy with the path of the church and are reacting in their own anti Christian manner against it’s descent into lewdness, so don’t go expecting any tributes to ol’ Nick without an offer of a baptism (of fire) from this lot!

-Shan Siva