Sinister Realm - Sinister Realm |
Published November 24 2009
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(The Oracle) Into The Depths Of Hell |
| Genre | Traditional/Doom Metal |
Alex Kristof
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Vocals
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| Tracks | 9 |
John Kantner
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Guitar
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| Runningtime | 45 Min. |
Keith Patrick
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Guitar
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| Label | Shadow Kingdom Records |
John Gaffney
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Bass
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| Release | 18 August 2009 |
Darin McCloskey
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Drums
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| Country | USA |
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Keyboard
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| Similar artists | Judas Priest, Candlemass, Dio, Omen, Black Sabbath | ||
In this day and age of empty trends and vapid flavor-of-the-week bands, the average American metal fan can become a bit of a Nihilist, waiting for a Message From Beyond that the old ways are returning. Just when we think that the Circle is Broken, along comes Sinister Realm, the next defenders of the 80s sound and attitude. With their self-titled debut album, this leather-clad quintet has given us a seamless blend of hallowed traditional metal and dark doom, a classic sound for the modern age.
From a production standpoint, this album is quite good: The cover art, complete with candles, skull, and a minxy metal demoness, completes the professional job that Shadow Kingdom records did on this release.
The guitars, courtesy of John Kantner (Who was kind enough to contact me and send me the album personally - very professional on his part) and Keith Patrick, are nice and punchy, without any glaring treble harshness, and the riffs and solos are dark and eerie. They are obviously disciples of Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, as they have mastered his style of playing "behind the beat", which gives the whole sound the shambolic, dragging feel which is at the heart of the doom sound.
Occasionally, as in Message From Beyond, a depressive acoustic guitar will break in and provide further shapes of despair. Darin McCloskey never over-plays the drums, but plays them well, the plodding sturm und drang coming straight from his sticks to our ears. John Gaffney's bass is locked in with McCloskey's cannons of destruction, and he is not buried in the mix, but steps along just beneath the guitars.
Major accolades here go to Alex Kristof. While the frontmen of many retro-metal bands appear as so many Halfords and Dickinsons, Kristof's voice harkens to the great Messiah Marcolin, a feat in itself to be sure. But mind, he is no mere Leper Messiah. His voice is mature and varied, and he can easily switch from dark and doomy to an almost Graham Bonnet-esque leather-throated rasp.
Lyrically, the songs tell oft-told stories, and -mostly- avoid the clichés of the genre. There are plenty of demons, pentagrams, swords, and spells-in other words, everything classic metal fans have come to expect and love, this reviewer included.
These nine anthems of hell are tight and concise, without a lot of repetition. After the One-Two-Three Punch of The Oracle, The dark, brooding Machine God rises. We are then dragged Black Sabbath-style Into The Depths Of Hell.
Message from Beyond is classic Medieval Doom, with Kristof invoking the great Rob Lowe of Solitude Aeternus at times. The chorus is a catchy bit of British Steel, but at a leaden pace. March Of The Damned brings the pace up just a bit-but not too much-and gives us a slice of Bass-heavy groove, dripping in Dio-esque magic and mystery, with a killer guitar wizard's duel.
Following this is The Nihilist, the chorus being the very living definition of the word "catchy". This song grooves along in the same way as the Judas Priest classic Grinder, and is just as convincing in its delivery. The song has a bit of auxiliary percussion in the form of an egg-shaker behind it, following the groove. These little touches, things such as egg-shakers, tambourines, cowbells etc. are lost to modern metal-and what a loss they are, as they add so much by adding so little.
The Mongol Horde follows the same sort of general feel as The Nihilist, but its Iron Maiden-esque guitar melodies and historical subject material are no less sinister. More dark heavy metal bands ought to cover historical subject material, as there is a gold mine of subject material in humanity's bloody past. The final note of this song is the only place on the album where Kristof's voice falters at all, but barely enough to be noticeable at all.
The instrumental Enter The Sinister Realm is a return to the One-Two-Three feel, and a stellar, adventuresome collection of dark guitar riffs and brooding melodies. It changes keys and tonalities often, and complements its vocal-heavy counterparts well.
The final track, The Circle Is Broken, is another slab of pure doom, with some nicely-placed keyboard pads and angelic choirs floating in the mix out of the way-where such things surely belong. It is as tortured and plodding as the rest, a fitting end to this classic metal liturgy. This song would have fit in well on any early Candlemass album, minus the Messiah, of course.
All told, this album is a first-rate choice for fans of early doom and classic metal. It lacks in very few departments, except originality, as the influence of the hallowed sounds of the old masters is clearly on display here. However, with the quality of this band's work, such things can, for a time, be overlooked.
This is an eminently listenable album, although somewhat
safe at times, taking few risks and succeeding brilliantly where they
do. If these fellows manage to personalize their sound a bit more without
losing the quality of their work, our next visit to the Sinister Realm
should be even more enjoyable than the first.
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Performance
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Originality
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Production
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Vocals
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Songwriting
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8 |
5 |
7,5 |
8,5 |
7,5 |
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Summary
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7,5 chalices of 10 - Nate |
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