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Sinister Realm: Sinister realm

18/11/09 || Smalley

Wow, I finally got a label-sent album that I actually like; not a whole lot, mind you, but still, like is like! You see, unlike many of their label-sent brethren I was unfortunate enough to stumble upon, Sinister Realm actually knows how to write pretty enjoyable heavy metal, and fill an entire album with it, instead of the brief glimpses of quality typical of the label-sents (if there’s any quality at all on them). Although Realm’s overall style is pretty vanilla, that ain’t the end of the world, right? Just disregard the sort of occult-looking album cover and song titles, plus the occasional thrash-y riff, because Realm really just plays straight-up heavy metal, not thrash, not death, or black or doom, despite what their Metal Archives page says (TMA should try listening to the bands they list every once in a while, ha). It’s pretty good heavy metal too, and the fact that their singer isn’t shit helps out a lot (though how shit could sing, I do not know). He isn’t “good”, per se, but I’ll still take some inoffensive vocals over my ears rupturin’ any time.

Er, the reason why SR can write enjoyable metal is because they’ve found that sweet spot between the hyper, directionless, don’tknowwherethefucktogo writing style, and the dull, repetitive, “don’t… know… where the fuck… to… go?” style; in other words, the band knows when to keep playing a catchy riff so we can continue enjoying it, but they also remember to keep a good amount of variation throughout their songs. There was surprisingly good usage of acoustic guitar sections here, and along with the occasional vocal distortion effect, some back-up singing, and a few other audio tricks, the variety of sounds on “Sinister realm” added up nicely, keeping me interested for most of the listen (the nicely punchy riffs and solos didn’t hurt either), and I found myself liking the album more and more as it went on.

Of course, there are definitely still things Realm could improve on; for one, there’d be a song section here and there that dragged, lacking sufficient energy, and sections that were (despite what I said about interesting songwriting) a bit too repetitive for their own good. They also need to tone down their bass sound, since there are moments here where that puppy burps away like a three year-old who got into daddy’s unattended bottle of Jack Daniels (don’t worry, he’ll just sleep it off!). And finally, Realm needs to inject more personality into their style, otherwise, any future album probably won’t be worth the time; maybe they could make their sound darker, to match their wannabe evil image? Hey, is that the brother of that stutterer from Disturbed? Aw, HELL NAW. Anyway, while “Sinister Realm” didn’t make a huge impression on me, it was still more enjoyable than any other album I’ve gotten from a label during my time as a staffer, and the first of those that’s better than a fucken 6.5, so thanks SR, I am now complete, and can retire from writing!!!

…but, I won’t. Sorry to get your hopes up like that. Anyway, keep up the good work, Realm!

Information
Released: 2009
Label: Shadow Kingdom
Website: Sinister Realm MySpace
Band
Alex Kristof: vocals
Keith Patrick: guitar
John Kantner: guitar
Darin McCloskey: drums
John Gaffney: bass, back-up vocals

Tracklist
01. (The Oracle) Into The Depths Of Hell
02. Machine God
03. The Demon Seed
04. Message From Beyond
05. March Of The Damned
06. The Nihilist
07. Mongol Horde
08. Enter The Sinister Realm
09. The Circle Is Broken

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