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SINSAENUM “In Devastation”
SINSAENUM “In Devastation”
By Lord Randall
Journeyman Frédéric Leclerq is at it again, a “new direction” being proclaimed with “In Devastation”, which is a good move, based on how lifeless at worst, mediocre at best SINSAENUM’s output has been thus far. Born from the double-loss of a longtime band member and a parent, Leclerq is, apparently reinventing what the group can be – and honestly, it’s far past time.
First, the artwork looks straight off the cutting room floor of early/mid-‘00s Roadrunner. Could it be TRIVIUM? Could it be KILLSWITCH ENGAGE? Shit, it could be any of those and doesn’t make me want to hit Play whatsoever. But may my suffering guide you into not making the same mistake as I feel I’m about to make.
While the opening title track itself is unapologetically melodic, and the drums of André Joyzi are impressive in his sense of rhythm, the vocals of Sean Zatorsky fall flat as they always have with this band. For 80-90% of SINSAEUM’s material his lack of inflection and garbled death metal delivery have never been a right fit, even less so with the direction Leclerq is heading now. “Cede To Thunder” is a thankfully short mishmash of overdone DRAGONFORCE-esque wankery from the guitars, which leads us into “Shades Of Black”.
From the start, the muted beginning leads into an instantly catchy, Zatorsky’s attack ideal for this sort of hard music. I have a hard time calling it Metal, but it’s memorable, the solos are tasteful, and if the rest of the album were of this caliber, we could call it a marked improvement. Yet “Obsolete And Broken” not only stumbles, it plummets downward, the only saving grace being Attila Csihar’s clean vocals. In the interest of plain-faced truthfulness, I never thought I’d be able to accuse Attila Csihar of MAYHEM of phoning in a performance, but that seems to be exactly what’s happened thus far on SINSAENUM’s third.
“Last Goodbye” succeeds as a ‘TALLICA ballad if you like that sort of thing but completely shits the bed when the “heavier” sections kick in and, for all Leclerq’s talk about a “new direction”, it might’ve been interesting to hear the band explore the quieter moments further. I’d love to tell you about the next three “songs” but they blew past, the cut-and-paste ethic in full force, with not one element that might be called true songwriting present.
Unfortunately, SINSAENUM never recovers from the pratfall that was “Obsolete And Broken”, thus “This Wretched World” is more of the same, and – while “Over The Red Wall” struggles a bit in its effort to right this sinking ship – what we have here is a case of way too little way too late.
Frankly, I don’t think there’s a direction this band could go in where I’d feel any album of theirs would be worth a second spin at this point. The only thing “In Devastation” right now is the 45-ish minutes I’ve wasted on this complete shitshow masquerading as metal.
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