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the return of SINNER could have been nothing less than spectacular, yet the high quality of TWBE took me by surprise with its unbellievable sound.
None, myself included, expected SINNER to top "Nature of Evil ", although I was fully aware of what Mat and Co were up to, but the result is probably the best SINNER album to date.
As good and even better than Nature of Evil and as dark as The End of Sanctuary, TWBE is also the heaviest SINNER album to date, and although some people could blame it on Mat's successful Primal Fear activity of the past 6 years, the truth is that PF and SINNER are 2 very separate things and no one in his right mind and ears could ever confuse them.
There are a lot of musicians out there involved in more than one band, but being able to juggle 2 worldclass acts and do just as well with both has to be a performance deserving of a prize.
Mat Sinner does it, and with his usual grace and easygoing style, and the result is just unbellievable.
Although SINNER is not exactly a band you would expect to go to the limit of power metal- that slot we all thought it belonged to PF- the band does it in their own niche , and to their merit it has to be emphasised that we are talking about a natural evolution and not the oh so fashionable changes in style to meet the market demands we have seen a lot of bands ashaming themselves into- see the latest 2 outputs from the former metal gods Judas Priest and many more.
TWBE is the logical step after Nature of Evil and The End of Sanctuary, made by a team of highly professional musicians, and now SINNER is again an all-star band- status again thought to be reserved for PF. If you miss the atmospheric keyboard passages that Nature of Evil, well you won't get a lot of them on TWBE, BUT there is something just as good as that, as the band puts out two incredible ballads to balance the somehow aggressive tone of the album, and the incredible Crown of Thorns is in my opinion the best ballad Mat Sinner has ever wrote- and we are talking about the man who wrote Under your Spell and Tears of Rage and Bleed for Me- not to menton the older SINNER ballads, but this one is THE BEST he ever wrote as far as ballads go.
The rest of the album is heavier and sometimes would go all the way to the beginning of thrash metal with the heavy riffs of requiem for a SINNER and the unleashed force of Higher Level of Violence , together with the mastered aggression of Die on Command, who slows down the pace just to make it more threatening and extremely heavy.
Finalizer is fast and mean with a masterpiece of extreme drumming by noisemaster Fritz Randow, fast pace and the henny Wolter and Tom Naumann guitar attack- remember that there is no such thing in the current line-up of SINNER as a second guitarist, both Henny and Tom are accomplished guitarists and takes a big fan:-)) and experienced hearing to realise that Tom is the one with the heavy riffs while Henny is faster and more melodic.
Locked and Loaded is again aggressive with heavy riffs and keyboard effects, and the effect is spooing good and slightly scary.
God Raises the dead can be without doubt asuccess for the christian metal consumers- and there are a big lot of them out there, a song of deep feeling and faith that goes with heavy sounds and a very optimistic way of singing from Mat-
Liberty of Death strikes back after The River touched your soft side, and Black Monday is a fast furious one with mean riffs and guitar buzzing,owed to Tom Naumann's style, and the album gloriously ends with the incredible love ballad Crown of Thorns by Mat and Henny, and what a song this is- incredible sensible and sweet love song - if you want a real ballad with real feelings and not the usual reheated long soup for teenagers and housewifes- this one is IT, it does not get any better as far as balads go, and one should have had to go thru a lot of pain to be able to write such an incredible love song.