April 2022 Feature Release – The Horde Edition

Another month flies by, which means it's time to select a new feature release for The Horde. As it's my turn to choose, I've gone with Sinister's Diabolical Summoning album from 1993. As soon as I noticed it had zero ratings on Metal Academy, I felt it was my duty to make sure it gets some attention.

As usual, it would be great to read what you all think of it either below or in review format. I have an inkling that one death metal fan I know, who may or may not be related to me, will be happy with this selection.

https://metal.academy/releases/7814

Despite having reservations about a lot of death metal and not being a member of the Horde, that clan's feature releases are actually some of the more successful with me personally. Luckily this month's entry is no exception. Sinister are once more a new band to me, despite their more than three decade long existence, but is Diabolical Summoning ever right up my metaphorical alley. Trading against national stereotypes these Dutch masters lay waste to the notion that theirs is a nation of laid-back, super-chilled, peace-loving latterday hippies with a good old slab of filthy and diabolical death metal. The early nineties were the days of doing E's and getting loved-up to techno beats, which is more what I would associate the Netherlands with, but luckily Sinister spent their time getting brutal and nasty instead!

Sinister's death metal still seems to retain some thrash metal DNA in it's genetic makeup, which is no bad thing in my opinion. That said, it also blasts like a motherfucker at times too. The guitar riffs sound nice and dense with some real muscle behind them, the bass throbbing along underneath like an adrenaline-fulelled heartbeat and drummer Aad Kloosterwaard hammering his kit in a whirlwind of pummelling that I would imagine meant he had to be tethered down for fear of taking off! One of my favourite aspects is the vocals, Mike van Mastrigt's bull-roar is perfectly suited to the sonic brutality perpetuated by the instrumentalists and has made him one of my new favourite death metal vocalists.

Sinister rarely go for the slower tempos of many early 90's DM acts and so generally avoid the death doom tropes of the time, preferring instead to try to melt your face off with their piledriver approach. I can't help but compare this with Incantation's Diabolical Conquest, if for no other reason than it has become a favourite death metal release after hearing it for the first time via a Horde monthly feature, but more so for it's uncompromising style being exactly what I like in death metal (and they are both "Diabolical" obviously!)

4.5/5

"Diabolical Summoning" was a HHUUGGEE record for me back at the time of release & would become a significant influence on my approach to writing death metal music throughout the mid-1990's. I had been very big on Sinister's 1992 debut album "Cross The Styx" but the band's sophomore effort just seemed to take everything I loved about that record & accentuated it even further. The riffs are chunky & catchy as hell, the drum sound is super brutal (particularly during the blast beat parts which are powerfully performed with genuine precision & are a real highlight for me) & the vocals are... well... sinister surprisingly enough. The band not only do an amazing job at replicating the US death metal sound of bands like Cannibal Corpse, Monstrosity & Malevolent Creation but they manage to take the extremity levels even higher without ever losing their sense of songmanship. I have to admit that some of the thrashier sections aren't Sinister's strongest moments but when they get on a roll they can be truly devastating, as seen on genuinely classic death metal tracks like "Sadistic Intent", "Diabolical Summoning", "Leviathan" & "Mystical Illusions". They have a real knack for creating impact through their transitions too with drummer Aad Kloosterwaard being the key player there. Any fan of the classic death metal sound will love this record which I regard as not only Sinister's finest work but also a classic for the genre.

4.5/5

Probably one of the most under-appreciated death metal bands in the world, Sinister have been plying their trade for over thirty years. Whilst not consistent in their output for a number of years, they actually set a firm foundation for themselves in the early 90's with their first three albums carving out quite a name for the Dutch death metallers. With sophomore releases being the trickiest of any discography the band built on the success of their debut (which I vaguely recall) and whilst they did not necessarily better it they maintained that great trajectory going into their 1993 release.

For the uninitiated with Sinister, think Deicide, Malevolent Creation and the less predictable elements of early Cannibal Corpse and you are in the right mindset. They play that rabid death metal that I associate with the first two Deicide albums but possess a knack for delivering more structure to their riffing like CC did when they paused for breath. Opener Sadistic Intent is a CC like banger of an opener that straight away embeds deep foundations for what follows as Mike van Mastrigt's vocals take no time in bellowing their presence from the off.

He is backed up by a great set of musicians also. Andre Tolhuizen is a riffing machine who can fire his fair share of sonics when required and the percussive talents of drummer Aad Kloosterwaard are of the highest standard you would expect in the death metal world of the early 90's. Lost somewhere in the maelstrom is the bass of Bart van Wallenberg but it makes regular appearances out of the churning chaos of most tracks to let you know it is still there with the occasional echo of its rumble just audible around the periphery of proceedings.

Highlights? The relentless riffing of the title track will have any fan of death metal beaming from ear-to-ear for sure. The looming build of Leviathan is a pleasure to behold before it descends into rampant madness and the seemingly endless energy of Sadistic Intent all benchmark what this album has to offer. You simply could not ask for a better example of prime 90's death metal. Sinister knew their stuff and it showed brilliantly at this stage of their career.

4/5

Maybe it's because I've been listening to a lot more melodic, cleaner stuff like the new Hath, Immolation, or Allegaeon for my Death Metal recently, but this was the exact kick in the teeth I needed to break up the monotony. Diabolical Summoning is one of those Death Metal records that knows how to keep the energy going for the entire runtime and, at the same time, keeping the runtime short enough to not run out of steam. As has been already said, the riffing is great, the drum production is some of the punchiest I've heard and sits right in my preferred middle ground of being just chaotic enough to keep the listener guessing while still laying down the necessary double bass rhythms to keep the guitars moving. The other attribute I'm starting to pick up on for my favored Death Metal releases is the effortlessness of all the transitions, and wow are there a lot of them in this record. Each track is bursting with all kinds of different riffs and sections that chaotically flow together seamlessly in a way I can't really explain. It's a bit barebones for me to give it absolutely massive praise, but this is definitely an overlooked one, as everyone else has said.

4/5