Sinner has been releasing music since the early 80’s on a fairly consistent basis. However, most people are probably more familiar with Mat Sinner’s (vocals, bass) work with Primal Fear where, as most of you know, he does bass work, some song writing, and does backing vocals during live shows, which sounds infinitely better than when Ralf Scheepers does all the backing vocals on the actual studio work. Either way, Sinner has been a mainstay of the German Traditional/Heavy Metal scene and though there are plenty of solid releases in their catalogue The Nature Of Evil is significant to me because it was one of the first releases I heard in this style and it helped me get into a lot of other similar bands back in the late 90’s.

Sinner’s music on here is rather simplistic and there’s a mix of very short and to the point songs and longer songs which tend to build up a certain kind of sinister atmosphere. The riffs are quite heavy with a strong traditional Metal feeling without overt Judas Priest influences (unlike Primal Fear). The tempos do vary from song to song and though each is simplistic in nature they all mesh well-together. The faster songs such as Devil’s River and Trust No One have an intense atmosphere to it thanks to the aggressive and heavy guitars with pounding double bass and forceful vocals. Meanwhile, the more mid-paced oriented tracks like Justice From Hell and the title track have an approipately dark and sinister (in a Melodic Heavy Metal way, not in an early Emperor way) feel that goes along with the overall theme of the lyrics and music. This is why I think Sinner’s music is so successful despite so many tried and true Heavy Metal clichés, which weren’t as cliché in 1998 as they are now. The music is instantly memorable because each verse and chorus is well-thought out and melodic with choruses that you can sing along with by the 2nd chorus refrain. Meanwhile the riffs and rhythms cause you to instantly move your head and melodic solos and leads (which tend to harmonize with the vocal melody in most songs) further add to the hook value of the release.

I think most Metal heads can overlook the simplistic nature of the CD because of the many things found throughout the release that got most people into Metal in the first place: gruff but melodic vocals, aggressive but melodic guitars, pounding rhythms, dark and evil lyrics and themes, and above all else constant head banging and fist pumping. I’ve listened to this CD many times over the last 9 years but despite a few songs here and there I hadn’t listened to the entire release in maybe 3 years. My tastes in Metal and experiences with different bands have changed since then so I was somewhat interested to see how I would interpret the music. Aside from the fact that I still really dislike the final track, The Sun Goes Down (I would always skip it and now I remember why), due to the song writing being full of build-up with no pay-off, my opinion of certain songs somewhat changed. The aforementioned shear intensity of the vocals and riffs on Devil’s River made me appreciate the song on a new level and re-listening to A Question Of Honor made me realize how much the song sounds influenced by Lizzy Borden (whether purposely or not). By in large I still enjoyed the release to the same degree, just with a greater appreciation of how well this defines classic, well-done, no-frills Heavy Metal.

Bands like Sinner are excellent starter bands for new Metal-heads looking to get into an easy-to-listen-to and easy to appreciate music which eschews everything that Alternative Rock, Nu-Metal, and other such questionable music forms (to most) isn’t. Though for the veteran Heavy Metal listener Sinner may come across as overly generic, don’t forgot, along with Accept, they were one of the first bands doing this style of Metal and they still do it better than most.