Thursday, November 7, 2019

Sins of the Damned: Striking the Bell of Death (2019)

Well, that name is a mouthful.  Not to be confused with gothic metal band The Sins of Thy Beloved, Sins of the Damned is a relatively new band out of Chile who plays tried and true speed metal with blackened metal vocals. 

The album starts off with some ominous bell-ringing, that most likely being the titular "Bell of Death".  It then kicks off into "They Fall and Never Rise Again", one of the better songs on the album.  Most of the song titles are a little lengthy, just like the album title and the band's name.  The songs are also a little long, with only two songs being less than five minutes, and one of those is the intro track (also the title track). 

The music is mostly fast-paced, as is normal in speed metal.  The band seems to take some major influence from the likes of Helloween, among other bands, playing traditional speed metal with a barrage of riffs and drums.  The high speed riffs often repeat ad nauseam and are mostly clean, stopping just short of edgier riffs that would take the music into thrash metal territory. 

The main element that distinguishes this band from so many other traditional-minded speed metal bands is the harsh vocals.  They often veer into black metal-style rasping and growling, adding a threatening tone to the otherwise mostly melodic metal.  It is a unique idea, somewhat similar to the blackened power metal of Satan's Host, but it never quite works as well.

This is an interesting album with some off-kilter elements, but it never quite comes together.  Granted, this is the band's debut album and there is plenty of time to flesh out the ideas.  This is a fun album to listen to, but it never really grabs the listener's attention as much as an album of this style should.

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