Top Picks
Sinner – Boom Bang Goodbye (melodic metal/rock)
It's slim pickings this week, so I'm going to use this space to highlight the somewhat unsung heavy metal heroes in Sinner. While I mostly know them from their awful/appropriative voodoo glow-skull covers of recent years, it turns out the band date back to the early '80s, with albums like the Top Gun (1986) predating speed metal semi-classic Danger Zone (1984). Nowadays, the band—named for Primal Fear bassist Mat "Sinner" Lasch—are more of a studio session supergroup, having somewhat moved away from their heavy metal roots in favour of a more modern melodic rock sound. As its title suggests, Boom Bang Goodbye is intended as the band's final outing, with the now 61-year-old Lasch similarly settling into slower pastures.
As swansongs go, it's a suitably impressive one, especially compared to samplings of their recent albums. It's greatest strength, however, highlights something I'm going to call the "Ronnie Romero problem". Like all modern Sinner albums, Boom Bang Goodbye features a roster of rotating guest vocalists, including Lasch's Primal Fear patriot and melodic metal maestro Magnus Karlsson, Eclipse's Erik Mårtensson, Saga's Michael Sadler, Soilwork's Bjorn Strid* doing his Night Flight orchestra thing and frequent Udo Dirkschneider collaborator Mathias Dieth, among other usual suspects, the least surprising and most valuable of which is obviously Romero.
The Chilean-born Romero, who made his name as a live vocalist for recent (re)incarnations of Rainbow and the Michael Schenker Group, has come to semi-prominence within the melodic rock/metal world of late by showing up and largely blowing away the competition on a seemingly never-ending of guest-vocalist showcases and tribute records. Romero's voice, which—despite his pedigree—is much more reminiscent of Whitesnake's David Coverdale than Ronnie James Dio, is perfectly suited to this sort of music. Outside of the underwhelming (and surprisingly under-powered)** Elegant Weapons, Romero has never really had a band of his own.
Maybe that's the way he likes it, but—as the three songs he fronts here go to show—he is an undeniable powerhouse who truly shines when given the right foundations to wail upon. His tracks are the clear standouts on this album, suggesting Romero would be the perfect full-time frontman, were Sinner to soldier on. For now though, we'll just have to wonder at what was and what might have been.
*Has anyone ever actually called this guy "Speed"?
**Other members include Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner, Accept drummer Christopher Williams and Uriah Heap bassist Dave Rimmer.
As Bright As The Stars – Celestial Ascension (post-black metal)
Cats are nice.
Release Roundup
Altarage – Cogwheel (blackened noise-doom)
Allt – Ataraxia (nu metalcore)
Anatomy Of Habit – Paired Sentinels (post noise-goth)
Arca – XXXXX (weird electronic/ambient)
Ariana Grande – Petal (soulless pop/rnb)
Arsis Thesis – Ustanak (sludge, not Arsis)
Bear McCreary – The Singularity: Ekleipsis (prog metal) Review
Bedtimemagic – Lay Down with the Dogs (noise rock) Review
Beyond Grace – Welcome to the New Dark Ages, Part 3 (prog death)
Blodtåke – Epitome of Solitude (black metal)
Bruul – Bruul (black doom)
Cairiss – Wilderness (post-black metal)
Cipher System – Torn Between Realities (progressive mellodeath)
Complexant – Apex (tech death/core)
Deadvectors – Caveslam (brutal deathcore)
Disfiguring The Goddess – Bloom (slamming brutal death/core)
Dead Meadow – Foundlings (bluesy psych-rock)
Dreamtale – Aetherbound (symphonic power metal)
Dry Wedding – The Back Of Beyond (goth doom)
Dumb Waiter – Change (weird noise-prog?)
Element Of Fate – Dreamfall (goth/doom metal)
Finsterforst – Still (folk doom)
FireFlame – Force Against The End (power groove, butt metal)
Future Palace – Resurgence (baddiecore, pop)
Hexorcist – Crucificial Imprecations (black thrash)
Horrid Mass – Nauseating Ecstatic Degeneration (death metal)
Iconic – II (should-be-better melodic metal)
Jig-Ai – Jigoku (goregrind)
Lalu – A Mythmaker’s Demise (prog rock)
Limbonic Art – Arcane Past: The Celestial Grimoire (progressive meloblack)
Long Goodbye - A Whispered Promise of Failure (brutal metalcore)
Nothingness – Godslaughter (death metal)
Nvlvs – Soundless Echoes (black metal)
Pvrgatorii – From Thee Core ov Thee Dvngeon (noisy blackened death)
The Salt Pale Collective – …And God Said Nothing (post-doom)
Sellsword – …With Might And Vengeance (power metal)
Septure – Under the Sceptre (doom metal)
Shearling – Don't Look at Me the Way a Dog Might Look at Your Leg (experimental noise rock)
Sir Richard Bishop – Hillbilly Erotica (folk shred)
Southpaw FLHC – The Standard (hardcore)
Sterilized – Mangled Biomechanical Amalgamations (slamming brutal death)
Tim Montana – Entire State Of Tim Montana (butt rock)
Torturerama – The Elaborate Theatre of the Macabre (death metal)
Viande – Monument Aux Morts (blackened death-doom)