Label: AFM Records
Release date: September 13, 2019
Album length: 57.38 min
Production: Mat Sinner
Genre: Hard Rock
Rating: 7.5 /10
Mattias Lasch, or more precisely Mat Sinner, is with his long-lived heavy metal and hard rock institution Sinner a kind of icon of the classic school of German metal in his own right. Through sheer activity, the guy keeps a good chunk of the pulse of distorted musical goings-on and substances alive. Alongside the mother band, with which he’ll soon be celebrating a whopping 40 years, he has helped plenty of bands break through over his career, worked in production, co-founded Primal Fear in 1998, launched the commercially incredibly successful Rock Meets Classics project, plays for the German “Whitesnake imitators” called Voodoo Circle, and is part of Jorn Lande’s backing crew. Sinner thus remains for this musician a sort of cherry on top of the cake, something he does strictly for his own enjoyment, since the Sinner name doesn’t exactly grow on every tree, so it’s clear it’ll never bring Mat the coveted jingle of cash. His other projects, as mentioned, take care of that.
In recent years Sinner have put out a nice batch of new albums that, let’s be honest, don’t bring anything new. Somewhere around the releases of “End Of Sanctuary” (2001) and “There Will Be Execution” (2003), Sinner stopped being creatively interesting and have just been riding the well-worn grooves of a tried-and-tested recipe, dictated by stripped-down heavy rock, that results in monotonous musical products.
Even though Sinner never went after any particular commercial success or widespread recognition, Mat still can’t shake off his manager skin. The guy knows full well that a “refresh” is in some way necessary. So he called a female singer into the Sinner ranks. You read that right. The lead vocal duties are now shared by Mat Sinner and Giorgia Colleluori, while Ronnie Romero (CoreLeoni, Rainbow) and Ricky Warwick (Black Star Riders) join in as special guests with vocals on the album, and the “bluesy” guitar soloing in the track Death Letter comes courtesy of Mat’s Primal Fear buddy Magnus Karlsson.
Well, this time around Sinner are dealing in bigger stylistic jumps between songs than you’d expect. The opener Shine On, with an excellent vocal performance from singer Giorgia Colluleori, does raise hopes that the album will be metal-charged and bristling, and that we finally have Sinner with production and sound closer to “The Nature Of Evil” after a long time. But that hope gets killed off pretty quickly by the fun rocker Fiesta Y Copas (Chilean Ronnie Romero handles the Spanish verses in the mid-eight section). From there on, the album settles back into the tried-and-true tricks of old-school Thin Lizzy influences, Priest primal energy and AC/DC riffs, while also flirting with blues, even delta blues (Death Letter), and southern rock (Misty Mountain). In the slightly sharper rocker Last Exit Hell, Giorgia in a duet with Sinner even brings some vocal charisma comparable to Doro Pesch. What Went Wrong with Warwick on vocals can be labeled as yet another tribute from Mat Sinner to the legendary Thin Lizzy, and funnily enough, neither Lucky 13 Craving nor The Ballad Of Jack stray an inch from it. Although Death Letter is Sinner’s brave experiment and a nod to the blues, the originals from the days of blues pioneering are so strong in the authenticity of their heritage that it’s easy to see the reheated soup of Death Letter as the album’s absolute time thief (the same goes for Misty Mountain). Towards the end, the dark The Wolf thankfully brings a bit more metal fury to the album.
Giorgia has proven herself an excellent singer and, alongside Naumann’s unbreakable solos, she’s actually one of the main magnets on the new album. The album is mostly light, rocking and party-minded, and stirs up cheerful, joyful feelings. However you look at it, Mat and company are too experienced to make anything that wouldn’t be credible and confident in terms of songwriting and production. The album is once again good, solid and quality. But with no standout moments whatsoever. So, nothing special. Despite the detours Mat Sinner took with the integration of a female vocalist, extra guests and a more varied genre styling on some of the compositions. Longtime fans of the band, yes, those of you who have followed Sinner since the eighties, will be perfectly satisfied and content with “Santa Muerte” too. All of you “infected” with the magic of the unforgettable “The Nature Of Evil” album, though, don’t waste your time on it. And don’t forget: the album is once again (by at least fifteen minutes) too long.
Tracklist:
1. Shine On
2. Fiesta Y Copas (ft. Ronnie Romero)
3. Santa Muerte
4. Last Exit Hell
5. What Went Wrong (ft. Ricky Warwick)
6. Lucky 13
7. Death Letter (ft. Magnus Karlsson)
8. Craving
9. The Wolf
10. Misty Mountain
11. The Ballad Of Jack
12. Stormy Night
13. Sorry
Lineup:
Mat Sinner – vocals, bass guitar
Giorgia Colleluori – vocals
Alex Scholpp – guitar
Tom Naumann – guitar
Markus Kullmann – drums
Guest musicians:
Ronnie Romero – vocals on track 2
Ricky Warwick – vocals on track 5
Magnus Karlsson – guitar solo on track 7
Neil Witchard – backing vocals
Sascha Krebs – backing vocals
