Sinister: Hate (1995)

If I had to pick a death metal band that was the most underrated, I think Sinister would be on the short list.  The Dutch band has been prolific, releasing 13 albums since their inception in the late 1980's.  And they have been fairly consistent, despite a number of lineup changes over the years.  In fact, at this point, only the vocalist remains from the original lineup, and until 2005, he was the band's drummer.  Nevertheless, the music remains high quality.  One could argue that have been inconsistent in their consistence.

The early Sinister material is absolute top-notch death metal, carrying a strong influence from the U.S. scene, particularly from the Tampa area.  And that is what we have in this release, the band's third full-length after their first two amazing albums.  But where Cross the Styx and Diabolical Summoning were more raw in their approach, Hate finds the band settling into a groove, a groove that they would continue for much of their career to this point.  The band has refined their songwriting skills, found a way to truly tell a story with the release, and streamlined their sound.

Sinister crafts a dark and evil atmosphere on this release to go along with occult-based lyrics that put groups like Deicide to shame.  The Deicide comparison is apt regarding the musical style as well since this is a fast-paced release with tempo changes and fragments of technical riffwork.  The bass is very thick on the release producing a lot of bottom end.  This thing is damn heavy.  Most of the songs feature a variety of melodies or riffs all fighting for their time in the spotlight.  The band is able to switch gears quickly and seemlessly.  The one constant is brutality.

This is one of the better Sinister albums among a long line of impressive releases.  I still prefer their earlier material and this is where everything really seemed to come together.  It remains a shame that Sinister was never able to capture the same attention as other death metal bands of their time period.  Especially when they were putting out albums of this caliber.

Sinister: Syncretism (2017)

Dutch band Sinister is one of the great, overlooked bands from the early 1990's death metal explosion.  A lot of that is due to geographical isolation.  There just has never really been a massive metal movement from The Netherlands, particularly in regard to extreme metal bands.  There are a lot of symphonic and power metal bands, but not a ton of great death metal bands, though those that do exist (Asphyx, God Dethroned, Pestilence) have been incredible.  And yet, Sinister still flies under the radar.  This is Sinister's 13th album, a surprising total for a band that has not achieved much of any notoriety.       

Sinister has always possessed a particularly evil, hostile sound and that is on full display throughout this release.  This is one of the band's strongest albums in years.  In fact, the band sounds rejuvenated after a couple of somewhat weaker releases the last few years.  A large part of that would likely be the addition of new members at guitar and bass.  The band's aggressive, grinding riffwork hammers on the listener, and the pounding drums and brutal vocals add to the experience.

Even after all of this time, Sinister still has something left in the tank.  They are veterans of the death metal scene, but still sound as fresh and vital as they did in the early 1990's.   

Sinister: The Unborn Dead (2014)

The Dutch death metal mavens Sinister have quietly put together quite the impressive and long-lasting career despite never coming close to mainstream death metal recognition.  Most of the reason for this is geographical, but it is quite unfortunate all the same. 

This release is a quick, two-song 7" EP.  Both songs are covers with the first being a cover of Grotesque's "Ripped from the Cross", and a second, much more outside-the-box cover of Chicago-based doom metal band Novembers Doom.  Both tracks are presented with the grinding bottom-heavy riffs and pounding drums that Sinister has perfected over their long career.  Vocalist/drummer (?) Aad Kloosterwaard has one of the most extreme voices in death metal, sounding much more like a deep, guttural croak.

There is not much to say about the Grotesque cover.  It is definitely within Sinister's wheelhouse, fast-paced, frenetic death metal.  It is unsurprising that Sinister is able to handle this song capably.  The much more shocking cover is the Novembers Doom cover.  Sinister infuses some clean vocals to capture the mournful tone of the original track.  But the band sounds a little clumsy trying to slow things down and has a hard time conveying the tragedy and loss that Novembers Doom is so well-suited to capture.  Sinister should probably stick to uncompromising, lethal death metal than trying their hand at doom.

So, two tracks, one pretty good, and the other not as well-executed, but certainly interesting.  It is only a two-track EP so it is only recommended for hardcore fans.

FMA Reviews: Sinister: The Carnage Ending

Originally reviewed here.

In recent years Sinister's music has been somewhat outshined by their amazing and oftentimes brutal album covers. They put out a couple of terrific death metal albums in the early 1990's with some terrific artwork on the cover. But since then their music has been lacking something. One thing they have always managed to do is grab attention on the CD racks though. The music just has not been able to live up to the promise of the cover.

This year Sinister once again released an album with an eye-catching album cover. Unlike prior albums though, the music contained within is extremely impressive and powerful death metal. Sinister definitely has an old-school death metal sound, not at all surprising since the band has been around for a long time now. They have resisted the urge on this album to add more modern touches to their music, just letting it speak for itself. The result is an absolutely blistering and relentless death metal attack that shows that there is some life (death?) left in this old band. Seriously this thing will leave you gasping for air and with a broken neck. It is that good.

Sinister, like their countrymen in Asphyx, are propelled by some extremely powerful riffs. This is fully on display with this album. The riffs are like steamrollers, unstoppable and shockingly heavy. The sound of the album is crisp without sounding sterile. The result of this is that the riffs are emphasized that much stronger. The blunt-force trauma from the riffs is that much more serious. So yeah, the riffs are good. Just a little bit.

Beyond the guitars, everything just comes together to create as much of a cacophonous sound as possible. The drums drive things forward and are truly interesting. It is not often that I really notice the drums, unless they are really good or really bad. This time, they are really good. The vocals, which are not the most brutal in the death metal genre, nonetheless sound terrific with this music.

This album puts Sinister back on the map. They had been going with the flow for years. No longer.

Top 40 Metal Albums of 2012: 30-21

30.  WINTERSUN: TIME I
It has been a very long time coming for this release.  The band released its first album way back in 2004 and there have long been promises of a new one coming soon.  I myself have known about this for about four or five years now and anxiously awaiting it.  Of course it did not quite live up to the hype, but it is still an extremely impressive release all the same.  An incredible blend of a variety of metal styles into a surprisingly beautiful final product.

29.  CRADLE OF FILTH: THE MANTICORE AND OTHER HORRORS
Everyone's favorite gothic metal nutballs, Cradle of Filth have once again released an album in October of this year.  Just like clockwork.  The sound is a little different this time around with more of an emphasis on aggressive riffwork than on albums past.  Cradle of Filth has also focused on decreasing their song lengths making this a much tighter and punchier release than some of their more long-winded efforts to date.  It is easily one of the band's best albums in years.

28.  ENSLAVED: RIITIIR
Enslaved has received a surprising amount of criticism on this release.  I do not personally buy into all that much as this album has once again strongly impressed me.  It is not as dynamic as some of their other more recent releases, which is why it is in this position instead of closer to the top, but it is impressive in its own way.  Enslaved is a band that continually puts out terrific album after terrific album, and this one is no different.

27.  NAPALM DEATH: UTILITARIAN
Napalm Death has built one hell of a long career out of simply making eardrums bleed.  Their politically charged lyrics are sometimes lost in the cacophony of noise that they make but their anger is plain and obvious.  I have not always been the biggest fan of Napalm Death, but over the last couple of years they have become one of my favorite groups.  This release certainly shows why it is that the band has been able to last as long as they have.

26.  ABORTED: GLOBAL FLATLINE
Simply put, this is the best album that Aborted has put out, likely ever.  The Belgian bashers have long been attempting to add some measure of experimentation and more mainstream-influenced sounds into their brutal style.  On this release, Aborted abandon all of that and simply play to their strengths.  This is brutal and unrelenting grinding death metal the way that it should be.

25.  SATAN'S WRATH: GALLOPING BLASPHEMY
Departed Electric Wizard bassist Tas Donazoglou wasted no time in putting together his next musical project.  Fans of his former band will likely not find a whole lot to compare it to as this is a band looking towards other metal influences to guide his style.  Satan's Wrath is built upon the legacy of early Slayer, Bathory, Hellhammer, Possessed and other band at the forefront of extreme metal.  This is a tribute album with original material and it is one of the most impressive debuts of the year.

24.  NACHTMYSTIUM: SILENCING MACHINE
Nachtmystium lost me for a little while.  Their last album was far too progressive without enough of their prior black metal style for my tastes.  This album saw a return to their original black metal sound while also working to mix in the progressiveness that the band had been experimenting with.  What resulted was one of the band's best albums in their discography.  This album even saw a return of the band's black metal logo.

23.  ARKHAM WITCH: LEGIONS OF THE DEEP
This will not be the only traditional metal release that will be seen on this Top 40 release.  There were a number of terrific albums released this year dedicated to the early heavy metal masters.  Arkham Witch utilize a variety of styles on this album from doom metal to thrash metal to hard rock.  One thing stays the same throughout though, their ability to write damn catchy songs.

22.  SINISTER: THE CARNAGE ENDING
Sinister was once one of the most brutal death metal bands going.  They emerged from the Netherlands in the late 1980's and put out a couple of terrific and powerful death metal classics early on.  They faded a bit over the years but apparently never really lost their edge.  This is the best album Sinister has released in a number of years.  The brutality and power that once coursed through the band's veins is back with a vengeance.

21.  CHAOS INCEPTION: THE ABROGATION
There have been a lot of great death metal albums released this year from unexpected bands.  Chaos Inception is a recent project of Quinta Essentia guitarist Matt Barnes.  Just like his other band, Chaos Inception's biggest strength is the highly original and impressive riffwork.  It is a masterful death metal release that proves that there is still a lot of life left in the genre that many have believed has grown stale.

Initial Impressions: Sinister: Diabolical Summoning

Recently on the Metal Archives forum there was a thread about great old school death metal gems that were kind of forgotten about. It was there that I saw a post about this band. Sinister is a death metal band that formed in Netherlands in 1988. This albumw as released in 1993, which is surprising because it sounds like something much more recent.

Sinister's style of death metal sounds more like a combination of Immolation, Morbid Angel, and Suffocation. It's extremely heavy, and a little bit slower with deep grooves. It's incredibly brutal and intense and has the occasional faster part and blazing guitar solo. The heavy riffs, pounding drums, and deep guttural vocals give off a suffocating feel to the album. It is a death metal album that actually sounds evil.

This is one HELL of a death metal release. It's a shame that it's been largely ignored for so long.