SINPHOBIA
Popping on the album ‘Awaken’ by Sinphobia opens the mood veered into a dark place via the introduction, as deafening drums and haunting chants are presented in the ‘Fearless Horde’ track. This quickly blasts into a classic crunch-tastic riff welcoming you to the death marching theme found in ‘Prayer To Warcry’. With a similar beginning and ending throughout the entire opening song, there is a slight sense that we’re in for a ‘more of the same-ness’ in each punishing track forthcoming. I guess we’ll see...
Sinphobia comes to us with their second official release, ‘Awaken’. This follows the critically acclaimed 2014 self-titled release, ‘Sinphobia’. Sinphobia were formed in 2007 by Conso (vocalist) with Vain on guitars, Darkoniglio on bass and hammering percussions from Falsi! Sinphobia has a distinctive style that merges American style classic death metal with newer European thrash. You can hear their ties to many classic death bands like Morbid Angel, Entombed and Bolt Thrower. How do they measure up to that star studded company? Let’s listen to the rest of the album!
My fears were soon relieved (pun intended!) once I heard the track ‘Guilty of a Downfall’, as it was a nice change of pace and a fine speedy tune while holding firmly onto the classic death style they are known for. This track leads into ‘The Punishing Hand’, which kicks the doors down once again with shrieking growls from Conso and very unique beat changes mid-song. I’m finding that my enjoyment increases slightly with each and every listen of these tracks.
‘Thread of Salvation’ attacks your earholes instantly, with a violent riff and blood curdling vocals that shock you into paying attention. The rest of the track moving right into ‘Respect’ is a nice transition, but doesn’t exactly keep up the nice progression of each track out-doing the prior. ‘Respect’ feels a bit less inspired or original with shouts of “I want respect” and “This f@$&ing life!”, but still comes across as powerful.
‘Face your Mirror’ has the coolest intro piece of any song found within this release; it also has wonderful phases of speedy grunts with a crazy rhythmical beats that crash into the darkest riffs imaginable. This song is the true “killer track” of this release! ‘March of the Lambs’ brings the album to a nice close that continues to pummel our ears with a continuous blast of powerful guitars and growls from Conso. There are also two bonus tracks of ‘Tetra’, which is a raw studio version, and ‘Labyrinth’, an Elisa cover. No real opinions on the two extra tracks. They’re just kind of here.
Sinphobia has taken a historical theme from classic American death metal and advanced it to new levels that I am very pleased to say is enjoyable! While I do feel this style has aged itself slightly, with more complex styles becoming the norm in the death community (I know, send me hate mail), any fans of the genre would do themselves right in picking up this album as it is quite a nice surprise!
Sinphobia comes to us with their second official release, ‘Awaken’. This follows the critically acclaimed 2014 self-titled release, ‘Sinphobia’. Sinphobia were formed in 2007 by Conso (vocalist) with Vain on guitars, Darkoniglio on bass and hammering percussions from Falsi! Sinphobia has a distinctive style that merges American style classic death metal with newer European thrash. You can hear their ties to many classic death bands like Morbid Angel, Entombed and Bolt Thrower. How do they measure up to that star studded company? Let’s listen to the rest of the album!
My fears were soon relieved (pun intended!) once I heard the track ‘Guilty of a Downfall’, as it was a nice change of pace and a fine speedy tune while holding firmly onto the classic death style they are known for. This track leads into ‘The Punishing Hand’, which kicks the doors down once again with shrieking growls from Conso and very unique beat changes mid-song. I’m finding that my enjoyment increases slightly with each and every listen of these tracks.
‘Thread of Salvation’ attacks your earholes instantly, with a violent riff and blood curdling vocals that shock you into paying attention. The rest of the track moving right into ‘Respect’ is a nice transition, but doesn’t exactly keep up the nice progression of each track out-doing the prior. ‘Respect’ feels a bit less inspired or original with shouts of “I want respect” and “This f@$&ing life!”, but still comes across as powerful.
‘Face your Mirror’ has the coolest intro piece of any song found within this release; it also has wonderful phases of speedy grunts with a crazy rhythmical beats that crash into the darkest riffs imaginable. This song is the true “killer track” of this release! ‘March of the Lambs’ brings the album to a nice close that continues to pummel our ears with a continuous blast of powerful guitars and growls from Conso. There are also two bonus tracks of ‘Tetra’, which is a raw studio version, and ‘Labyrinth’, an Elisa cover. No real opinions on the two extra tracks. They’re just kind of here.
Sinphobia has taken a historical theme from classic American death metal and advanced it to new levels that I am very pleased to say is enjoyable! While I do feel this style has aged itself slightly, with more complex styles becoming the norm in the death community (I know, send me hate mail), any fans of the genre would do themselves right in picking up this album as it is quite a nice surprise!
LABEL:
FORMAT:
Bakerteam Records
Album
AWAKEN
Review by Joshua Jaeger
RUNNING TIME:
45:24
RELEASE DATE:
26th February 2016
TRACK LISTING
1) Fearless Horde
2) Prayer to Warcry
3) Guilty of Downfall
4) The Punishing Hand
5) Thread of Salvation
6) Respect
7) Face Your Mirror
8) March of the Lambs
9) Tetra
10) Labyrinth
2) Prayer to Warcry
3) Guilty of Downfall
4) The Punishing Hand
5) Thread of Salvation
6) Respect
7) Face Your Mirror
8) March of the Lambs
9) Tetra
10) Labyrinth
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:
Italy
"Sinphobia has a distinctive style that merges American style classic death metal with newer European thrash. You can hear their ties to many classic death bands like Morbid Angel, Entombed and Bolt Thrower."
