| CD REVIEW Sinister |
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Band: Sinister This Dutch band certainly does not need any introduction. Almost twenty years after their birth, The Silent Howling is the eighth full length, having duration of forty six minutes. The band left Nuclear Blast Records and did sign to Massacre Records earlier this year and the first result is a killer-one! Original members Aad Kloosterwaard (v) (ex-Houwitser, ex-Thanatos, ex-Monastery, also involved with Blastcorps, No Face Slave and Infinited Hate) and Alex Paul (g) (also ex-Houwitser and Sadistic), bass player Bas van den Boogaard (former Pleurisy- and Judgement Day-member) and new drummer Edwin van de Eeden did create their most varying album to date, yet also their most mature one. As from the first song, “Republic Of the Grave”, it is a certainty that the high level of the 2006-album Afterburner gets smashed mercilessly. Both rhythm section and guitar riffs / solos are better-thought than (almost) ever before, Aad’s grunts are more intense, the compositions are very varying (in tempo and melody – listen for example to the title track, a great epic hymn with Doom- and acoustic pieces) and the production is rough and concrete-hard yet so decent. Sinister did always stay true to their roots, which does pay off, especially if each album gets stronger and more convincing than the former one (except for the superior 1992-debut Cross The Styx, but that might be some childish form of personal ‘old times’-melancholy???). 85/100 Ivan Tibos. |