A lot of bands who promise a mix of Black, Death, Punk etc are generally atonal and dull. So why would I want to review such a band? Well because what if it isn’t like that? What if it really is the next Nekrofilth (if you don’t know them then you’re missing a Metal Punk fantasy). I love Metal and Punk and really they should work together perfectly, so why is it that we so rarely see a perfect union? In recent years I’d say Power Trip and High Command have got it pretty right. Crossover Thrash is almost always too far one way or the other. You can tell I’m fussy can’t you?
Anyway here we have Siniestro, a Swedish group who promise such a wild amalgamation of genres. Formed in 2012 and with a debut behind them called Revelations In Mayhem I figured that they may well have honed their craft nicely. Could I be wrong? Today we look at the 2021 second full length Vortexx (not sure why it needs the extra ‘x’). This album comes to us through Black Lodge Records, but is it the Punk Metal powerhouse that it promises?
Okay so first things first I have to say production, it sucks, and not in the good way. You know when someone plays you a song over a video call, it sounds like that, especially the drums. I like poor production but this is straight up awful. Sifting through that slop though is One Last Bullet One Last Ride which is some pretty promising aggressive Blackened Death Punk? It’s high energy with vocals that range across an Extreme Metal spectrum, instrumentation is a touch generic though. It actually sounds quite a bit like Sepultura at points, especially the vocals. Things take a more Amon Amarth path with Blod Eld Död, this is a longer more straight-up Metal track with decent melody, but it still suffers terribly from the production which is a great shame. Soon enough we get Hiisi a very pointless, but quite nice acoustic instrumental.
That leads into the second half with Escape By Death, more powerful riffs ruined by dire production. This song certainly has a traditional Black Metal flare to it in the guitars, but the vocals lean on Sepultura and dare I say Machine Head at points. We get another long track in Anti Human Commando, it’s a pretty punchy number similar to Blod Eld Död, but I can’t see much need for these songs to be quite so long, I don’t dislike them though (well minus that awful sound quality). The album closes with the organ tones of My Innermost Sun, I really enjoy this but it’s not something that is needed and very much feels like some sort of padding for the album.
So much like being sucked into a vortex this album is a bumpy ride. The music whilst good is relatively unmemorable and the range of styles at times feels a little confused. Add that to the shocking production and I’m frankly confused. When you cut through the murk the actual music is good enough for me tolerate it in a live setting at least, but it isn’t something that is going to shake the world of Metal. As a crusty music journalist I have to say it didn’t live up to my expectations and overall it was a generic trip.
(5/10 George Caley)
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