Sinister – Syncretism

[nyrating]

20th February 2017 Reinier de Vries Album Reviews 0

In 1989 Gorefest, Dead Head and Sinister all started their career and another Dutch death metal act God Dethroned followed a year later. Gorefest already quit, but the others are still alive. The most productive one however is Sinister. With Syncretism the band releases their 13th album! The only consistent member and still around since the beginning is vocalist Adrie Kloosterwaard. Because of his sick grunts the band is always recognizable as Sinister. Although the band changes members more often than I change my underwear the music style isn’t.

On this new album the band is doing what they do best, playing devestating, scorching and flattening old school death metal. Everything is worked out to perfection. The drums of Toep Duin sound tight as an ants asshole and for the variety they hired Carsten Altena (The Monolith Deathcult) to add some soundscapes. These soundscapes fit in very well and see to it that it isn’t just one express train from start to finish. Sometimes you need to take a breath and rest a bit to enjoy even more the next fast and brutal parts. This is what happens on this album, it blows you away, but just when you think you can’t handle it anymore the storm calms (a bit) down. Especially in the title track you can hear how the soundscapes enrich the music of Sinister.

Besides the brutal riffs, guitarist Bastiaan Brussaard shines with his melodic solos as well, just listen to the solo in ‘Black Silthering Mass’. It doesn’t matter if you are a fan of Morbid Angel, Cryptopsy, Deicide, Behemoth, Vital Remains or Cannibal Corpse, this is an album for you all. I advice you to buy the digipak, with a 14 minute long bonus track!

With still 10 months left this year, I dare to say that this will be a hard nut to crack for every death metal band to conform to.

Tracklist:

01. Neurophobic
02. Convulsion of Christ
03. Blood Soaked Domain
04. Dominance By Acquisition
05. Syncretism
06. Black Silthering Mass
07. Rite Of the Blood Eagle
08. The Canocical Rights
09. Confession Before Slaughter

Playing time: 48:19

Release date: 24 February 2017

Label: Massacre Records

Website: www.facebook.com/sinisterofficial

About Reinier de Vries 188 Articles

Once a metal head, always a metalhead. My parents thought it would only be a period, but they were wrong. I quit to explain the beauty of metal music to others that are not into metal, because it is something you can't tell in words... It is like explaining to a teetotaller why a cold beer is so nice on a hot day... I started with bands like Accept, Metal Church, Iron Maiden and Metallica in the eighties and I think I will still listen to them when I'm stone deaf and old...