Sinister - Savage or Grace

Production:

Review: With this album Sinister lost longtime guitarist Bart, and Ron van der Pol rejoined after an absence since the first album. As a result, riffs and use of timing have improved, but the style approximates the previous album and the content is hasty, as if not ruminated on from concept to execution, but discovered midway through execution and elaborated upon, like jamming on a riff instead of making a riff to sound like what the song is about.

Tracklist:

1. Rise of the Predator (intro) (2:16)
2. Savage or Grace (2:36)
3. Barbaric Order (3:48) Heavy metal, death metal, speed metal, doom metal, grindcore or thrash mp3 sample
4. The Age of Murder (3:18)
5. Conception of Sin (5:21)
6. Chapel Desecration (3:40) Heavy metal, death metal, speed metal, doom metal, grindcore or thrash mp3 sample
7. Dominion (3:31)
8. Collapse Rewind (3:05) Heavy metal, death metal, speed metal, doom metal, grindcore or thrash mp3 sample
9. Apocalypse in Time (2:51)

Length: 30:26

Sinister - Savage or Grace: Death Metal 2003 Sinister

Copyright © 2003 Nuclear Blast

With the style of death metal Sinister want to make, this veers dangerously close to riff salad with melodic trimmings. Noticeably, the second half of the album improves upon the first with simpler songs that fit together better rhythmically, and with its reduced bounce factor, is able to complete more intricate variations on its riffs, giving a nice textured sound. But this will not hold up to repeated listens as earlier Sinister did because it is less organized.