Yet another superb batch of reissues from those unashamed metalheads at Metal Mind Productions.
Remastered and reissued in limited gold editions of 2000.
This time it's
Sinner. Seeing the light of day once more, armed with desireable bonus tracks are:
'Judgement Day',
'The Nature Of Evil' and
'There Will Be Execution', previously released, respectively, in 1995, 1998 and 2003.
'Judgement Day' has an impressive pedigree. Produced and recorded by Mat
Sinner and Achim (
Primal Fear, Edguy, Masterplan) Koehler, and mixed by Keith (Scorpions, Lynch Mob, Foreigner, Sammy Hagar, etc etc) Olsen, it neatly balances the sparse, barbaric logic of heavy metal with the melodic elements of in-your-face hard rock. Just as much as there are echoes of
Primal Fear and
Iron Maiden for the single minded traditionalist, there are songs that walk in the shadow of hard rock giants,
Whitesnake and
Thin Lizzy, for the more open minded rock and metal fan.
Okay, it explores no new territory and aims at no new targets, and although it aims for an underlying sense of menace and unease, there's a positive energy here that's hard to resist.
There's an embryonic power metal feel to
'Used To The Truth', with the tuneful twin axe attack mimicking the theme music to the video game, 'Doom.'
Next up,
'Troublemaker' is a huge, Megadeath-esque metal anthem.
Yet, it's succeeded by the hyperventilating 'White Lightning', which is more in the style of
Thin Lizzy or Blue Murder.
Mat
Sinner is not the world's greatest singer, but he has an emphatic vocal style as he leads his piston pumping engine of a band, Beyrodt and Naumann riffing with all the remorseless nonchalence of a tornado through songs full of guitar heroics, melodramatic plotlines and insanely effortless hooks.
Sinner again handles production duties for follow up album,
'The Nature Of Evil', with Koehler taking responsibility for engineering and mixing.
The band clearly seem re-energised on the back of '
Judgement Day's success. Ideas that began on that album are further developed and it's undeniably the heaviest thing the band have done. Especially opener, '
Devil's River' on which keyboard player Frank Roessler demonstrates himself to be a key component in the band.
The album's 7 minute piece de resistance,
'Question Of Honour' is a colourful, seamless patchwork of metal and hard rock, at times showing a distinct, classical slant.
Sinner and
Ralf Scheepers (who guests here) would later cover this track in
Primal Fear.
The strangely titled '
There Will Be Execution' continued much in the same vein as '
The Nature Of Evil'. Maybe a little more contrived, as
Sinner and team reunited and regrouped after Naumann and drummer Fritz Randow rejoined the band.
Sinner's brand of metal/rock could never be claimed to be unique or a slave to fashion, so a lot of emphasis must therefore be placed on the quality of the songs and of the performances.
Thankfully there's a handful of top notch songs here, firmly rooted in heavy metal tradition. Sounds too like they're having fun.
Firstly - and clearly borne out of respect - they mimic the
Metallica sound with '
Win On Command'. Then they cover it with a powerful, intense rendition of
'Wherever I May Roam' (1 of 3 bonus tracks).
But, as on the previous 2 reissues, what gives
Sinner's music real weight is its lack of pretension. What you see is what you get. Few metal bands can grab what could easily slide into genuine cacophony, and spin it into memorably melodic metal.
Three to savour then. Powerfully remastered, nicely digipacked and each with 2 or more bonus tracks.
If only all labels tried this hard.
Written by
Brian Wednesday, September 30, 2009
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