Artist: Sinner
Label: MTM Records
Released: 2007
Sinner’s new record “Mask Of Sanity” is a classic Sinner album. What Sinner established as their trademark over a 25-year career, they still stay faithfully true to. Mat Sinner, the undisputed leader and founder of Sinner, known in everyday German – and a name that sounds friendlier to native ears – as Mathias Lasch, is one immensely busy lad. He’s constantly involved as a sort of agent scouting metal and hard rock rookie bands, helps them out with production, chips in ideas, in short, the big guru of the German metal and hard rock scene. His daily work schedule is obviously so packed that not even the painfully unimaginative, creatively worn-out cover and album title can hide it. Mat is also especially known for his successful career as the bassist of Primal Fear. Well, if we start with the “German eagles” as far as judging the new Sinner record goes, we realize right away that “Mask Of Sanity” is much more a hard rock album than a heavy metal one, never mind an aggressive heavy metal album of the middle-to-later Primal Fear kind (“Black Sun” to “Seven Seal”). The production stays raw and alive, typical and instantly recognizable from Mat Sinner’s producing work in general.
Sinner haven’t attacked with the full artillery from heavy metal’s arsenal for ages now. That was the metal that, in the “Judgement Day” era (1996) and especially on the unforgettable metal bible “Nature Of Evil” (1998) – an album that should be private property in every household, it was that magnificent – so grandly built up the band’s classic heavy hard rock image.
“Mask Of Sanity”, already the band’s 14th studio album, is first and foremost made so that Sinner keep their name alive and don’t vanish from the merciless metal map, which today is soaked in fierce competition. So Sinner play “softer” – meaning more melodic – and you’ll find no wild smashers like Finalizer from “There Will Be Execution” (2003), really. The exceptions are Thunder Roar and Under The Gun, tracks that carry the attack of that aforementioned Finalizer and get “metalized” in their choruses by Ralf Scheppers (Primal Fear) with his screeching, instantly recognizable steely “Priest” touch, but even those don’t reach that kind of sharpness. There’s also a third factor here, one that stands out more than on previous Sinner albums thanks to the bigger melodic side of the guitars. And that’s the keyboards.
With all that said, “Mask Of Sanity” flirts with the eighties once again. And if that’s the case, the new Sinner actually sound more “Lizzy” again. Thin Lizzy? Aha! In the hard rock templates that mark the new album more intensely, the three-part harmonies come to the fore again, the ones the guys faithfully “pluck” (jerk) over the riffs – a constant, sure, but the other thing that (again) more obviously recalls Thin Lizzy is Mat’s warm vocal, which is atypically typical for heavy metal’s steely “rational coldness” in general, and with which he “indecently” but delightfully drags the lines through his nose at the ends of verses, bringing in the venom of Lynott’s voice. Just how dangerous the similarity between Mat Sinner’s voice and the legendary Thin Lizzy singer can get is confirmed by the cover of the Thin Lizzy classic Baby Please Don’t Go, parked at the end of the album.
It’s yet another nice, traditional Sinner album. Packed with a masterful weave of typical Sinner melodies, the manliness of Mat’s vocals, all inside a sturdy riff framework. An album that means absolutely nothing in terms of musical evolution. Not for the band, not for hard rock and not for heavy metal. “Mask Of Sanity” is a Sinner album meant for Sinner fans. In short, a very cautious, low-budget album that offers only what Sinner do best and only what they can obviously still pull off today. A frugal, thrifty, prudent album in its motives, a typical reflection of German hard n’ heavy rock culture. An album for all the nostalgics of Accept, Scorpions, the Brits UFO, Thin Lizzy and of course the “young to middle-era” (1978 – 1982) Judas Priest. What can I say, I like Sinner! And no worries. With “Mask Of Sanity” the guys have by no means forgotten what a real “bad to the bone” album is!
Line-up
Mat Sinner – vocals & bass guitar
Tom Naumann – guitar
Christof Leim – guitar
Frank Roessler – keyboards
Klaus Sperling – drums
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Andy B. Franck – vocals
Ralf Scheepers – vocals
Martin Grimm – vocals
Production
Mat Sinner
Track list
1. The Other Side
2. Diary Of Evil
3. Badlands
4. Black
5. Thunder Roar
6. The Sign
7. Revenge
8. Under The Gun
9. Can’t Stand The Heat
10. No Return
11. Last Man Standing
12. Baby Please Don’t Go
Album length: 49.49
