Envy

Sinned's debut album "Envy" (independantly released, I should add) brings forth a new disguise in the power of Deathgrind. As brutal as the riffing is, it still attracts a lighter crowd of listeners. Much like the melodic soloing of Cryptopsy, this band pushes forth with destructive and quite often, amazingly fast drum patterns, yet the solos and certain riffs remain vivid and reasonably melodic. I am in no mood to critique this band on their melody, as I am an avid admirer of this type of Deathgrind, much like I am of most other Death Metal, Grindcore, and any mixture of the two that exists out there. This Vancouver band destroys the sound that this sub-genre has amounted to in the past few years, and by that I mean the relentless trying, but failing involved in forming a fast, technical grindcore band.

The gore in the lyrics is present, yet not overpowering. I find Cryptopsy a fair, yet more popular, competitor amongside this band, because they blend in several genres to make the music complete. This album blows away anything that has come out as of late, especially after the brutal mark of Devourment's debut a few years back. The vocal approach is far piggier than what the case is for most bands involved in the Vancouver deathgrind scene. Squeals are common, yet growls are evident in a few as well. The most chosen way seems to be the inward gutteral squeals, or so I assume they are gutteral because mine seem to sound the exact same. As for the instrumentation, it is patterned precisely with a prowl. The fantastic solo on the second track, titled "Ecstasy", stands out the most, as does the hair-trigger drumming in most of the song.

The next few songs are a clear divide between interpretation of lyrics, as well as their belonging with the rhythmical, fast riffing, and the blast-beating involved in these songs. On the first few proper listens of "Envy" the listener fails to spot the technical innards that jump up and down during a song."Laid to Waste" and "Faithless" are both favourites for me, but the second simply because I heard it before I heard the album in proper entity. The gutteral squeals in "Fear" amaze me every time I put this on simply for enjoyment or to show off our stunning grindcore scene. The song also allows listeners to hear Dennis (guitarist, composer, and ex-Abuse guitarist) at his best, with one of clearest solo introductions I have heard to this day.

The band has earned my full respect as musicians because they are not the type to brag about their talents. They just play brutal music, and that's that! It is straightforward that none of them are new to playing brutal music. Although I have heard remarks about people calling the Sinned sound "too Vancouver" or "too BC" or whatever, our scene has no particular sound, apart from the techy breakdowns and speed of the bands. This is up there with Zuckuss, Abuse,.Crackwhore, Tendonitis, and Tard! Check out sinned at www.7deadlysins.ca.

Dragos,
www.canadianmetal.com