{"id":53375,"date":"2017-02-24T23:44:53","date_gmt":"2017-02-24T23:44:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=53375"},"modified":"2017-03-13T00:12:05","modified_gmt":"2017-03-13T00:12:05","slug":"album-review-sinister-syncretism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-sinister-syncretism\/","title":{"rendered":"SINISTER – Syncretism (2017) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

SINISTER
Syncretism<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nMassacre (2017)<\/span>
Rating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Syncretism<\/em> is the 13th full-length studio album from Netherlands death metallers Sinister.<\/p>\n

This is a band that over the years I\u2019ve had an on \/ off love affair with, and I wasn\u2019t overly impressed with their last outing, 2015\u2019s Dark Memorials<\/em><\/a> \u2013 an album consisting of solely cover versions. And so the feeling continues with Syncretism<\/em>, a record that I cannot doubt for its barrage of riffs, speeding percussion and chesty cough vocals, and yet I find my attention drifting in spite of being battered, bruised and bludgeoned at times.<\/p>\n

The quintet hammers its way through some impressive material; most notably \u2018Blood Soaked Domain\u2019, \u2018Black Slithering Mass\u2019 and the title cut, all of which successfully combine blasts of technical speed with slower, almost Gothic escapades of dark atmospherics and catchy, trudging riffs.<\/p>\n

With \u2018Blood Soaked Domain\u2019 Sinister show why there\u2019s still life in the old dog yet; the hammering percussion is most impressive and there\u2019s plenty of twists \u2013 mostly in the flailing solo exploits and inserts of grim melody threaded with trundling bass. Meanwhile, \u2018Black Slithering Mass\u2019 begins in typical bludgeoning, bellowing fashion \u2013 deep, echoing vocals and wild complex riffs and solos congregate along the wall of brutal percussions.<\/p>\n

Being a fan of the old school era since its inception, I find Sinister\u2019s current malevolence as one all too eager to nod towards to the mid-to-late 90s, a time when for me death metal became almost too polished, glossy and rather generic. But fair play to the boys for injecting a sepulchral, Gothic air which again makes itself known with the title track, and it\u2019s here that Sinister takes on a far more powerful structure \u2013 a blackened death metal act of arrogance and gargantuan ability and weight as effects spatter the torrent of riffs.<\/p>\n

Other standout tracks are the blazing opener \u2018Neurophobic\u2019 \u2013 a death metalised Slayer<\/a> \u2013 the crushing \u2018Convulsion Of Christ\u2019 with its eye-gouging melody, the face-ripping torment of \u2018Rite Of The Blood Eagle\u2019, and the slow-building menace of the mid-paced \u2018Confession Before The Slaughter\u2019.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all good stuff; a seemingly perfect combination of pace, dark melody and catchy brutality. However, just like with previous efforts, there\u2019s no questioning the ballsy, groove-based slabs of monstrous evil, but when the experience is over I rarely feel flustered and left feeling as if I\u2019ve heard just another contemporary death metal racket.<\/p>\n

Maybe Syncretism<\/em> just isn\u2019t my thing, but I still appreciate its qualities… even if they won\u2019t live long in my memory.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SINISTERSyncretism Massacre (2017)Rating: 7\/10 Syncretism is the 13th full-length studio album from Netherlands death metallers Sinister. This is a band that over the years I\u2019ve had an on \/ off love affair with, and I wasn\u2019t overly impressed with their last outing, 2015\u2019s Dark Memorials \u2013 an album consisting of solely cover versions. And so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1318],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sinister"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53375"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53386,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53375\/revisions\/53386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}