Sinister - Afterburner

*=Staff's pick	The Grey Massacre* Altruistic Suicide* Men Down Afterburner Presage Of The Mindless Into Submission The Riot Crossfire* Flesh Of The Servant

Genre	Death Metal	Aad Kloosterwaard	Vocals
Tracks	8	Alex Paul	Guitar
Runningtime	45 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Nuclear Blast	Bas van den Bogaard	Bass
Release	07 April 2006	Paul Beltman	Drums
Country	Holland	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Cannibal Corpse

Dutch death metallers Sinister have been around for quite a while now, since 1989 to be precise. Through all these years they have been true to their style, being american influenced death metal the technical way. Always very aggressive and mean music as I can recall. After a short break after the Savage Or Grace album from 2003, Sinister decided to once again rule at least Europe with extreme metal.

Afterburner was created together with Andy Classen at Stage One Studios, which leads us straight to the production that holds very high class. Afterburner can be considered as a new era in the existence of Sinister. The lineup has been trough some changes; former drummer Aad Kloosterwaard has left his duties to Paul Beltman in order to concentrate on doing the vocals. Alex Paul does the manoeuvres on guitar and has left the bass lines to Bas Van Den Bogaard. I don't think that the changes have had any bigger impact of the band. The music is quite similar to the way that it always have been. Very technical high speed performance, perhaps not as clean and polished as Cannibal Corpse nowadays but the music dwells somewhere in the same area. Obviously Sinister have taken their music onto a more melancholy path than earlier. The work on melodies seems to been in a more serious state than before. Afterburner isn't so much about the speed even though it exist some real formula one tracks.

Even though my first impressions after listening to Afterburner are positive, it feels like there is something missing. Afterburner is quality but perhaps there is more quantity after all. The good tracks are extremely well arranged and performed with class but there are also some tracks that don't feel quite as interesting and fresh as the better ones. The differences are at some times a little to big and this affect my feelings for the whole album. From having been excited over it I've gone to a more modest point of view. Afterburner holds some great arrangements and all through great work on drums but on the minus account lay the vocals that could and should be more powerful. The same goes for the number of half ok songs. Where there seems to be a lot of work and effort behind mighty ones as Altruistic Suicide and The Riot Crossfire, as little are there behind some others like Presage Of The Mindless that just feels like a long transportation.

Afterburner is a two faced history. Sometimes splendid, sometimes only ok.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
8	6	7

Summary
6,5 chalices of 10 - Tim