Some artists are immediate dead ringers for bigger established names. Some are utterly and completely their own, and some fall in between. Then there are whose who seem to have formed from a patchwork skin-quilt of influences in such a way that they always seem to remind you of a certain band, with one guitar lick or vocal outburst tantalisingly teasing the tip of your tongue before snatching the eureka of successful comparison away again and leaving the listener both engaged and slightly frustrated with the impossibility of categorising this latest musical nugget. Death metal supergroup Sinsaenum are one of these latter artists.
I’ve been listening to the promo stream of their new album In Devastation for about five weeks now, and while some comparative epiphanies have been achieved, I still cannot entirely put my finger on who Sinsaenum sound like. Perhaps this has to do with the disparate but noteworthy bands the members have served in. Featuring Frédéric Lecrecq (Kreator, Loudblast, ex-DragonForce) on guitar, bass and keyboards, Helmoth (Seth) on Bass and Attila Csihar (Mayhem, Tormentor) as one of the credited vocalists, along with guitarist Stéphane Buriez (Loudblast), vocalist Sean Zatorsky (Dååth, Chimaira) and drummer André Joyzi (ex-Breed 77), whose other bands did not immediately ring a bell with me, but this strange but promising concoction of influences has led to the fermentation of a powerful brew, and the album bursts with competence and quality.
A further injection of poignancy and power is afforded by the cathartic nature of this album, for all current members of the band and especially Leclercq. The album was wrought after the death of both former Sinsaenum (and ex-Slipknot) drummer Joey Jordison and Lecrercq’s father, and clearly has emotional significance for the band. Oddly, I have not found this to be a particularly grief-laden or indeed emotional listening experience. Rather, Sinsaenum deal in a groovy, hulking and somewhat thrash and prog-inflected strain of death metal. In Devastation is a very balanced and thoughtfully constructed piece of music that sits squarely in the center of modern death metals jagged battlefield. It’s not really melodic death metal, nor is it old-school Swedeath; it isn’t brutal death metal, it isn’t fully death-thrash and it isn’t full-on prog either. Odd comparisons include the opening title track, with an intro surprisingly similar to that of the latest …and Oceans album, the cleans on standout track “Last Goodbye” which render the track a delectable death metal version of Black Sites or Trials.
(In)Comparability notwithstanding, this album largely lives and rarely dies by its abundance of groove and guitar pyrotechnics. Those wailing leads of “Cede to Thunder” coupled with its sick, almost Alustrium like whirling riff which leads into an atmospheric, slowed down stomp and a razor sharp thrash solo never fail to get my head bobbing. The somewhat Alkaloidian intro of "Shades of Black” coupled with a riff like a swaggering steamroller, the powerful, melodic and slightly blackened death assault of "Spiritual Lies" and the odd but satisfying whup-whup effects on “Obsolete and Broken”. The album has on occasion lost my attention, and while late album highlight “This Wretched World”, with its gruff vocals, symphonic flourishes and excellent guitar pyrotechnics usually manages to pull me back into the vortex that is In Devastation. I do feel the album could have benefited from a few minor tweaks to elevate it from very good to the greatness that these musicians are surely capable of, especially considering the emotional process this album must have required.
Most tracks range between the four and six minute mark, and stick to a similar mid to fast paced tempo and a somewhat monotonous soundscape. Coupled with the intensity inherent in this type of death metal, and the reliance on a well-executed but somewhat unremarkable mid-range growl, the album can be harder to latch onto than its quality deserves. More inclusions of elements such as the symphonics on “This Wretched World”, the potent cleans on “Last Goodbye” and the more emotive solo that rears its majestic head on closer “Over the Red Wall” could lend subsequent efforts a flair and poignancy that when coupled with their already excellent ear for riff and groove should catapult Sinsaenum up to the lofty heights of the modern death metal greats.