By: Anders

Posted: May 22, 2006

Not many death metal bands have had their own seminal style through out their career as Sinister has. Though their latest album "Savage Or Grace" was a huge disappointment to me, the music wasn't up to par with what the band had done before and the production of it was quite bad as well. After that album the band disbanded, though it didn't take long for them to come back. The band has gotten 2 new members and the 2 remaining; Aad Kloosterwaard and Alex Paul have changed from drums to vocals and from bass to guitar. The 2 new men in the band are bassist Bas Van Den Bogaard and drummer Paul Beltman.

Sinister is back with a vengeance, the music is brutal and straight to the point, as we haven't seen by the band in a long time, the band digs into their past, and bring back some of their sheer heaviness, that painted the dark and sinister atmosphere on the early albums. The balance, between blasting brutal death metal and darker and heavy crushing death metal with a doomy touch, on this album is excellent, the pace shifts in the songs are well made. The drumming is good, and the heavy guitar riffs and frantic leads fit very well into the "new" universe of Sinister. The bass is heavy as fuck and is running down everything it meets down, and on top of it all, we have Aad's monster growl, deep and guttural, evil and passionate, bringing a lot of darkness and eeriness into the overall atmosphere.

The album was recorded in Stage One, together with Andy Classen, and he has made a great sound for the band. Heavy and brutal, but still with a good focus on the details, so the different elements doesn’t get drowned out by speed or heaviness. A good and fitting sound.

This is a comeback album with quite a punch, Sinister is here to stay, I'm pretty sure of. The band seems fresh and full of energy again, and they have gotten some new ideas, without loosing any of their heaviness, brutality or technicality, that's how it should be. The inclusion of the 2 rather long tracks in Sinister connection 'Presage Of The Mindless' and 'Flesh Of The Servant', which both contains a good deal of epic and majestic elements, are great as well, and shows a whole new side of the band. Killer song writing and just as good performance, I can't wait to hear more from this band!

Rating: 8½/10

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