Sinister - The Post-Apocalyptic Servant

Sinister is a band from The Netherlands that have been in existence since 1988 and is one of the more well known of the early 90s death metal surge. Even though they are Dutch, they have very little to do with any death metal coming out of Europe but instead have much more of a Florida sound. They're actually a rather inconsistent band having some all out classics as well as some really bad albums but for the most part they are a veteran death metal band that's is capable of putting out good albums. Their new and eleventh full length, The Post-Apocalyptic Servant shows a mature band but still more than capable of making a stand out death metal album.

This album is full of monster death metal riffs and amazing soloing as if this was 1992 all over again. The riffs go from tremolos to monster thrashers that just pummel you. The album opener, "The Science of Prophecy" is the perfect example of the excellent riffing in a catchy song. It starts off with a voice over then leads to crushing riffs. The vocals are the low, evil and angry growls that define the genre and fit the music. This is a great song to open the album. The solo is amazing and I love a good solo. "The Sculpture of Insanity" is another song that just rips from beginning to end with crushing speed and riffs to infinity. The title track is more of the same with blasting speed and the tremolo riffing adds to the sound putting a hint of melody in the chaos. But besides the speed and blasting is what makes this album stand out...that it's not just all speed and chaos but it has a lot of elements of thrash that was prominent in the early 90s death metal.

Songs like "The Macabre God" and "The End of All That Conquers" are two songs where the band slows it down just a bit and has those thrash riffs that just pound you. The solos are as they should be, speedy but with enough technique to be believable. "The Art of Skin Decoration" is another song that just starts off with this cool groove in the beginning then just crushes you with these massive riffs. This is probably my favorite song on the album. This is just catchy as fuck and the solo just makes it grab you even more. This is nothing groundbreaking...it's just good songwriting. It's good to see that after all these years and the fact that they had such an inconsistent career that they still have an album like this left in them. They are serious on this album and it shows.

The album clocks in at just under forty four minutes with only a couple of songs breaching the five minutes plus mark which is just perfect for this album because then it doesn't become too drawn out. The production is ballsy and perfect as it's not over polished nor does it sound too compressed. This seems to be the year for death metal because there's been an overwhelming amount of quality death metal released this year so far and there is more coming. This album is right up there with them because this time Sinister got it right. The riffing combined with the songwriting and supreme musicianship shown on this album is how death metal should be done.

8.0/10