Sinister – The Carnage Ending

Netherlands has one of the strongest Death metal scenes of the 90s including bands like Asphyx, Thanatos, Pestilence and Sinister continuing to this day. They have returned this year with new records: Asphyx – “Deathhammer”, Pestilence – “Doctrine” and Sinister – “The Carnage Ending”. One of the most furious Dutch Death metal bands, Sinister have proved themselves praiseworthy despite line up and label changes, split ups and other difficulties.

“The Carnage Ending” kicks off with a classical piece as an intro called “Gates Of Bloodshed” only to be followed by “Unheavenly Domain” blasting your speakers and putting a smile on every Death metal fans’ face: first blasting then grooving back to unrelenting Thrashing of your neck and definetely built to destroy at mosh pits all over the world. As you’re trying to pick up your pieces in comes “Transylvania (City Of The Damned)” with its groovy rhythm combined with an eerie verse lead darkening the song accompanied by sudden yet effective blastbeats over the track title at the end. One of my personal favorites of the record and the best is yet to come. “My Casual Enemy” comes ripping with kick ass riffage and Thrash-to-blastbeat tempo, Slayer-esque shrieking solos and a groovy chorus only to slow down the headbanging. “Crown Of Thorns” starts off with guitars fading in over Doomish drum tempo, broken by a bit of fast riffage, then back to doom and after that all hell breaks loose! Toep Duin is simply unstoppable and creative on the drums pushing the band further. The title track starts blasting including lots of trade off solos and a groovy chorus with many small riffs making it the longest song of the record.

Best parts are the atmospheric middle section which leads to an amazing outro solo that has kind of a Hard Rock feel. “Oath Of Rebirth” starts off with a Morbid Angel-esque groovy riff breaking into a beautiful melancholic melody in the chorus. Probably the slowest song of the record. “Regarding The Imagery” is another song made for live shows devastating everything in its path. The groove comes back with “Blood Ecstacy”: killer headbanging riffage from the first second accompanied by tapping that goes on through the chorus then into a amazing solo and the trademark Sinister fast breaks. A more atmospheric intro comes with “Defamatory Content” to turn into another high speed tornado based on the amazing drum fills breaking into a kick ass mid tempo riff, then back to the verse and ending with a phrygian solo. The album ends with “The Final Destroyer”, a track which even though it starts blasting and Thrashing once more, finally surprises the listener with its Black metal riffing after the choruses reminiscent of Mayhem. The song ends with another headbanging riff right in your face leaving you with the need to listen to the album again and again.

One of the strong points of the album besides the songs is its great production, the vocal performance of Aad Kloosterwaard (his spoken parts all over the album make the songs darker, another element deriving from Black metal) and the overall mood of the band: hungry and ready to kill (just listen to the guitar work of Dennis Hartog/Bastiaan Brussaard). All in all one of the best albums of the year, a release 100% worthy of bearing the Sinister name and ends the small controversy being sparked by the previous work “Legacy Of Ashes” (2010).