Sinergy

Suicide by My Side (Nuclear Blast)
by Martin Popoff

There seems to be a self-perpetuating trumped-up plot to slam Sinergy record after record, after which the latest is pronounced as the actualization to behold (Slayer gets the reverse: Raves for the fresh kill and then a quite revising downward after the carcass gets pungent). In any event, not much has changed, other than two members and a slight up-ratchet of heaviness. Call me contrary, but I’ve been closeted in my glee at the melodies on the first two, and those are still abundant within the dastardly, fastardly but neat and complete shred of Suicide By My Side. Kim’s vocals do it for me, because she sounds like the ultimate party chick, belting along with Jack Daniels to the concert in her head, while Alexi and their crack band snap tight their aggressive power metal platings. It’s a metal lovebird love-in, an embracing of tradition with the gleaming technology of today applied to add spring to the six-string step. So hell, they’re all good in a specific place – the land of vampy female-vocalized power metal – but at 38 minutes, call this a tie at best with the now much-maligned first two, which contain a good four of my favorite hundred metal songs of the last three years.
(2323 W. El Segundo Blvd. Hawthorne, CA 90250)