I’ve lost count of the amount of times this album has spun in my player – that could be both a good and a bad sign – in this case, I’m not sure my mind is made up, until the last word of this review is written. I’ve had a quite ambivalent relationship with SINISTER the last decade. The albums they made up through the nineties are all classics and have all earned their due here. Then we had the first album of the 00’s "Creative Killings" which wasn’t that good. Then SINISTER disbanded and even though that mainman and drummer Aad Kloosterwaard kept busy with other bands, he couldn’t let SINISTER rest in peace, so he assembled a new SINISTER with him on vocals. That caused a couple of dull albums until "The Silent Howling" was released in ’08, a decent album, though not up to par with the old SINISTER material. The newest branch on the SINISTER release tree is entitled "Legacy Of Ashes" and trails away with the traditional SINISTER Death Metal sound and pace shifts between crushing doomy riffs and frantic blast beats. Though a bit too often it seems a bit tired and uninspired on this record, take a track like ‘The Sin Of Sodomy’ which is a good example of the pace shifts, though the riffing is quite old, the lead crushes the momentum, yes quite uninspired and the track feels a lot longer than the 3:31 minutes it runs. This is unfortunately the story of a good deal of the tracks on the album, they are dull and the riffs and compositions seem rehashed. It seems like they have tried to return to the roots, after some albums where they tried a few other things – though the outcome is quite bland. The music is lacking intensity, emotion and expression – it seems like they took the easy way out of making a new album. The production is quite dead as well and doesn’t help the music on the way with energy or sheer power. No one can take away the legacy of the golden period of SINISTER nor the legacy of Kloosterwaard, though one listenable SINISTER album out of 5 and no real killer since "Aggressive Measures" is not good enough, and might hold some newbies off from checking out the classics, and that’s a shame as SINISTER is a big part of the Dutch, if not European Death Metal legacy. For the sake of listening "Legacy Of Ashes" is approved, though it, as already written, becomes dull quite too fast and offers nothing new to the SINISTER plate, and most importantly it lacks intensity and emotion, and that kills a lot! All further information at www.sinister-hailthebeast.com, www.myspace.com/sinisterwingsofdeath, www.massacre-records.com

I like slogans, such as, “this will be our most melodic, most aggressive, most technical, most what the hell kind of album” etc. Nowadays, bands have to sell their records somehow, but in most cases the descriptions just seem to be exaggeration. A month ago one of the earliest brutal Dutch Death Metal bands SINISTER stated, that their new record (their 9th one) “Legacy Of Ashes” is gonna be “the most brutal and fastest SINISTER album ever”. I was sceptical about it, since neither “Afterburner” nor “The Silent Howling” were strong efforts (I have to add, that the Dutch outfit belongs to my Death Metal faves and I follow their career since the ultimate “Cross The Styx”). After the ‘Herd Of Damnation’ intro “Legacy Of Ashes” opens with ‘Into The Blind World’ and this tune will convince every Death Metal fan that SINISTER is in a very good form again. It’s striking and the sound is very brutal, aggressive and powerful (the album was recorded at Soundlodge Studios in Rhauderfehn, Germany with producer Jörg Uken). In the person of Edwin Van Den Eeden we can welcome the most talented and so far the best drummer of the band. His drumming is varied and powerful and it can be heard, that he is a big fan of the technical, Florida based Death Metal. The whole record is, as I stated above, very brutal, but isn’t one dimensional or boring, since there is a lot of variety, tempo and rhythm changes. Tracks, such as ‘The Enemy Of My Enemy’ (with its good solo), ‘Righteous Indignations’ (with its acoustic parts) or ‘The Living Sacrifice’ (with its interrupted riffing) offer something for all tastes and here and there a few melodies can be heard. I’d say, the album is in the vein of “Aggressive Measures”, “Creative Killings” and “Savage Or Grace”, it hasn’t anything to do with the last two efforts of the band. The cover artwork was done by Mike Hrubovcak, so it became one of the best covers next to “Diabolical Summoning”. “Legacy Of Ashes” was also released as a limited edition digipak with 4 bonus tracks (total playing time 58:07min), so I advice you to buy this second edition. All in all – this is a very strong effort from the Dutch Death Metal veterans and one of the best Death Metal releases of 2010. SINISTER is back! For more info check out www.sinister-hailthebeast.com, www.myspace.com/sinisterwingsofdeath, www.massacre-records.com