Artist: Sinner
Label: Nuclear Blast
Release: 2003
Rating: 3.5/5
After a three-year break, the boys are hitting us again. Good thing too, since Mat is doing so well with Primal Fear. The record the fans (the ones who still remember Sinner, anyway) have been waiting for impatiently is born. It ticks every box Sinner have spoiled us with throughout their career. A bunch of seasoned old tomcats have come together in the following lineup: Tom Naumann, a guitarist who spent a few years away from music (and is now back with Primal Fear too), has returned to the band, Henny Wolter keeps him company on the other Gibson “Les Paul”, Fritz Randow (Saxon) is behind the drums again, and on keyboards, as always, Frank Rössler has the final word.
A show of pure metal machine-gunning for 45 minutes, with outstanding production, proves there was precious little fiddling around at the mixing desk. Crazy how alive it sounds! The Sinner sound? Like the Primal Fear sound, if that comparison helps you get your bearings (ha, no wonder, who produces the PF records if not Mat Sinner). Aggressive, uncompromising bulldozing that at times turns into pure thrash with semitone riffing (“Die On Command”). The razor-sharp guitar slashing is once again decorated with gorgeous harmonized-thirds picking, the band’s eternal trademark, which keeps the brutality and the melody in perfect balance (e.g. “Finalizer” or “Black Monday”). The keyboards serve as a random garnish again, this time more than ever. Sinner didn’t give a single song an atmospheric keyboard intro like they used to on the previous two records. Instead, they fire up the guitar engines with a “one, two, three, four” and the main riff, then slam the pedal to the floor right away. Blow after blow, the songs roll through the record. Mat Sinner’s unmistakable venomous vocals are with us again, and his devilish bass is cranked to the max and thick as a brick, which gives the whole record an extra dose of sharpness and the sound fullness, depth and width. The double bass pedal will seriously rattle the bearings your ears sit on, right from the opener “Higher Level Of Violence”, which is pure bomb-blast devastation. Of course, the run of songs also includes some with open, loosened mid-tempo riffing, like the fantastic “The River” or the Priest-style “Lock And Loaded”, which lifts the record’s dynamics. Sinner wrap up their execution with an excellent acoustic ballad, “Crown Of Thorns”, a brilliantly alive and metallic acoustic interweaving of both guitars, as further proof of what a genius composer Mat Sinner is. That’s it. Hats off, boys!
Feel the greatness of the true German heavy metal school once more, leave the “novelties” aside, everything has long since been invented. Don’t stray from the path. Stick to original sin! Stick to Sinner!!! Sure, there’s no such thing as sin, who even came up with that? But Sinner definitely exist.
Lineup
Mat Sinner – vocals, bass
Henny Wolter – guitar
Tom Naumann – guitar
Frank Roeseler – keyboards
Fritz Randow – drums
Production
Mat Sinner
Track List
1. Higher Level of Violence
2. There Will Be Execution
3. Requiem for a Sinner
4. Die on Command
5. Finalizer
6. Locked and Loaded
7. God Raises the Dead
8. The River
9. Liberty of Death
10. Black Monday (Thou Does Frighten Me in Dreams)
11. Crown of Thorns
Bonus CD:
1. Wherever I May Roam
2. Troublemaker
3. Roses of Yesterday
Running time: 45:15
