Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Sainted Sinners
Label: El Puerto Records
Released: 2018
Length: 50:22
Rating: 4/5
One of the best moves former Accept and Bonfire vocalist David Reece has made lately on his musical journey is putting together his new hard rock band, Sainted Sinners. Into the new quartet he has pulled current Bonfire guitarist Frank Pane, his fellow German and bassist Frederik Burkert, and Hungarian drummer Berci Hirleman. On the album »Back With A Vengeance« the keys are handled by special guests Angel Vafeiadis and Eric Ragno. The latter has worked in the past with Alice Cooper, Paul Stanley (Kiss) and Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), among others.
»Back With A Vengeance« is already the second studio album from this otherwise short-lived band, and it’s bursting with positive, creative drive. The players are loaded with experience, mileage and a heap of signature musical ideas, and they’re clearly on the same wavelength, which means the energetic vibe in the songs hits that much harder and sounds that much more convincing. The quartet plays hard rock that clearly stands on the legacy of the classic rock’n’roll bands. Both the pioneers (Deep Purple, Rainbow, UFO, Led Zeppelin, Thin Lizzy) and the later ones, when the “second wave” bands showed up, like Whitesnake and Van Halen. You can hear echoes of Black Sabbath in the era with Tony Martin on vocals, too, which means the songs are anything but one-dimensional.
The band isn’t inventing anything new or unsaid, but it’s a master at recycling, serving the listener basically old content in a fresh way. Production-wise, too, »Back With A Vengeance« is lively and dynamic from head to toe, pulsing with a »live« feel and making terrific use of contrasts. The band is never in a rush when writing. It’s also very refined in shaping mid-eight passages, where a complete modulation can kick in, meaning the song ends up leading you toward an upheaval and a brand-new mood.
Reece is in superb vocal form and hugely committed, and he’s got no shortage of vocal focus and feeling. Vocal harmonies are a must in the choruses, and that deepens the bombast that defines this album. Reece’s vocal performance alone shows that the quartet has clicked brilliantly, and that there’s great creative tension and chemistry, especially between Reece and Pane. Pane and Reece amplify each other and back each other up incredibly well, the way duos like that once did in bands à la Led Zeppelin, Free, Aerosmith, etc…. What Pane, for instance, can’t fully deliver with his guitar talents in Bonfire, because Ziller’s ego holds him back a bit, comes fully to life in Sainted Sinners.
»Back With a Vengeance« is an album that artfully works neo-classical elements into its vocabulary too, stemming from the ancient school of Richie Blackmore. A happy cross between rock’n’roll drive and classical elements is, for instance, the song Burnin’ the Candle. Pane is armed with an incredible arsenal of every guitar trick imaginable, and he’s got no shortage of dynamite in his fingers. He’s got Eddie Van Halen in the pinky of his left hand.
An album that rides the old-school hard rock tradition and never wavers in quality is a must-hear for every fan of the bands mentioned throughout this review. »Back With A Vengeance« is an incredibly interesting hard rock minestrone that breathes fresh and scoops up the untamed magic of rock’n’roll by the big spoonful! An album with plenty of rock firepower!
Line-up
David Reece – vocals
Frank Pané – guitar
Malte Frederik Burkert – bass
Berci Hirleman – drums
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Eric Ragno – keyboards
Angel Vafeiadis – keyboards
Production
Sainted Sinners
Track list
1 Rise Like a Phoenix
2 Burnin’ the Candle
3 Back With a Vengeance
4 Tell Me I Was Wrong
5 Nothin’ Left to Lose
6 Waitin’ Til the Countdown Begins
7 Let It Go
8 When the Hammer Falls
9 Pretty Little Lies
10 Gone But Not Forgotten
