Wild 'n' Evil

Sinner is a band with a huge, extensive catalogue. What's more, the frontman, Matt Sinner, is or has been member of several projects, including the well-known band Primal Fear.

This time we are not facing a power / speed album, though. Wild ‘n’ Evil is a very simple, straightforward hard rock / traditional heavy metal album. The mixture between the two genres is quite obvious, and has more elements from the latter than the former. Sinner has all these elements you'd generally expect from 70s metal and hard rock; not too heavy guitars, a loud bass, many vocal driven songs and accompanying standard background drumming.

For those who are not familiar with the band, or only know their later material, the best comparison is Thin Lizzy meets early Accept, Saxon and AC/DC. For instance, “Heat of the night” and “Silly things” are completely Thin Lizzy worship; the solos, the leads that come up, the rhythm guitars and even the chorus lines blatantly resemble Phil Lynott’s band. On the other hand, “Loser love” and “F.T.A.” have Saxon inspired main riffs that would have not been out of place in Wheels of Steel or Denim & Leather. Regarding AC/DC, the Australian band’s influence is quite present in “Ridin’ the white horse” and “The sin”; the former has a riff starting around 0:20 which is obviously “Bad boy boogie” inspired, and the latter’s main riff is the same one that starts “Long way to the top (if you wanna rock ‘n roll)”.

So why the low score? Apparently, this album has a lot of good influences and the mixture of these should be great, right? Well, wrong. The album itself is not very attractive if we consider way superior albums from that era released by compatriot bands; like Stormwitch’s Walpurgis Night, Accept’s Restless & Wild or Running Wild’s Gates to Purgatory. One might think it’s unfair to compare this album to speed metal albums, or albums that came 2 years later, but it’s not; Wild ‘n’ Evil is an album that came late and it’s uninteresting for the musical approach it has, opposed to Walpurgis Night’s infinite amount of fun and quality, or the early speed metal offerings by Accept and Running Wild, or for that matter, their own following release, Fast Decision. In fact, I think this debut album is quite detached from the rest of their later discography. Although it has some speedy moments that foresee what’s coming next, it really doesn’t catch your attention or amuse with unbelievable melodies. Moreover, it has some boring, throwaway tracks, like the dull ballad “Trouble”, or “F.T.A.” so you'll have the urge to press the skip button once in a while.

My biggest complaint about Wild ‘n’ Evil is that it sounds like they're trying to get their way doing what other legendary bands were famous for; the rocking, memorable Saxon-esque songs; the mesmerizing, Thin Lizzy-like tunes; and the less heavy, catchy AC/DC worship ones. The problems with this approach are: one, it gets old, and two, it's really hard to outstand in an overcrowded market full of glorified legends, by doing the exact same thing and adding nothing. For instance, let's take “Murder” and dissect it to analyse what's going on here. This one is a mid-paced, light rocker that, in principle, could belong to any band that plays traditional metal / hard rock. Then, out of the blue we get a Halford-ish shriek “Sinneeeeeeeeeeeer”(why is that there, I wonder) and the vocal lines kick in. The not-necessarilly-so-well-educated metal fan will realize that it resembles quite a lot Whitesnake's “Fool for your loving”; trying to be a bad boy, rocking hard and sounding as deep as possible – although this last one is also a well-known Thin Lizzy characteristic. And that's all the song has to offer; the rhythm is slow and boring, the singing tries to catch you but fails, and the solo is not showy or good enough to impress anybody. So, is the song that bad? Well, it's not awfully bad... I'd rather listen to it than nothing (it doesn't annoy me), but considering that I have tons of music to listen to, I rather skip it and go for the next one. Speaking of which, it's another excellent example of what's wrong with this album. “Ridin' the white horse” combines the AC/DC rocking sound, with many of Thin Lizzy's elements; like the deep singing and the lead guitar dialogues that come up around 1:30. Once again, the band's trying to be someone they're not, although this time the song is much better. However, for that matter I'd rather listen to Jailbreak, Fighting or Let There be Rock.

In addition to the uninspired songwriting, we get the utterly boring tracks I mentioned before. These are a failure in almost every way and put the listener to sleep. The final track, “Trouble” is sedating as it gets (it kind of reminds me to “Frozen rainbow”; just cheesier, with worse vocals and slooooooooow as fuck). “F.T.A.” is another worthless song. It has one of the worst choruses I've heard in my life; “FFFFF, TTTTTT, AAAAA” doubled with some slushy, ridiculous backing vocals. And the main riff is not better, it's the exact same Saxon used the year after in The Power & The Glory for “Redline”; it didn't work for Sinner and it didn't work for Saxon, a bad riff is a bad riff. “Heat of the night” is quite dull as well. Except for the solo, the rest is watered down Thin Lizzy, with a repetitive, awful chorus (“too hot”) and some unoriginal, bass-driven rhythms.

But let's be fair. Not everything is as bad as the stuff before mentioned. Some of the guitar work is good, and some songs work fine; “Silly things” is the best Thin Lizzy imitation I've ever heard. The singing really pulls off the Phil Lynott style, and the song structure and overall sound are impeccable in this sense; the two excellent solos around 1:12 and the sporadic leads that come up to bring some colour to the rhythm guitar work could have perfectly been composed by Phil Lynott himself. “Lost in a dream” is another enjoyable mid-paced track, with very good solos and leads, and a chorus that is ok. “No speed limit” is the fastest, and one of the best songs of the album. It's stylistically closer to Fast Decision, with a showy solo and very melodic leads. The fun fact about this song is that the riff is a slower version of Abbatoir's “Screams from the night”.

In conclusion, the album's not really bad, just uninspired. It has some good moments but it just feels like something that belongs in the 70s, and doesn't stand out at all. Furthermore, I don't think it gives an accurate idea of how good Sinner really sounds like. If you want to know what the real deal is about, then you should get their next album, Fast Decision. Those who look for more of 70s sound might like this one, and if you already own this, then you should check Thin Lizzy's vibrating discography.