APPICE – Sinister

If you were waiting to hear the powerhouse drumming of both Carmine and Vinny Appice on a studio album, your wait is over.  The brothers Appice squeezed into their busy schedules an album Vinny says reflects their long history in the music business.  The brothers call Sinister “a great-sounding, spine-shaking rhythmic foundation, along with big giant melodic guitars from hell, and on top blazing vocals and melodies that will tear it all up!”

The album is masterfully mixed and sounds great.  The drums are delivered thunderously without sacrificing guitar punch or burying the vocals.  Unfortunately, the vocals and melodies of most songs couldn’t tear their way out of a paper bag.  The brothers employ a half dozen vocalists but none are impressive.  To be fair, the material didn’t give them or the rest of the veteran musicians much to work with.  The title track opens the album like a prat fall down the stairs, over the couch and through the coffee table.  It’s a stumbling, disjointed mess of guitars, drums, and repetitive lyrics which can’t decide what tempo it will be played.  Ultimately, the song loses so much direction it’s mercifully faded out. The next song, “Monsters and Heroes”, is easily the best.  It’s an up-tempo ode to Ronnie James Dio with a hooking riff and lyrics which will challenge you to pick out all the Dio song references.  “Killing Floor” follows with a beefy riff to start but quickly becomes repetitive and fails to hook.  The remaining songs follow the same pattern.

While Sinister’s drum-centric mix is a refreshing change from the usual formulaic Melodic Metal sound, the song writing is too weak to recommend this album as anything but a curiosity.

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LINE UP & GUESTS

Carmine Appice (drums & vocals)
Vinny Appice (drums)

Jim Crean (vocals)
Paul Shortino (vocals) (Rough Cutt, Ex-Quiet Riot)
Robin McAuley (vocals) (MSG)
Chas West (vocals) (Ex-Lynch Mob)
Scotty Bruce (vocals)
Craig Goldy (guitar) (Ex-Dio, Ex-Giuffria)
Bumblefoot (guitar) (Ex-Guns N’ Roses)
Joel Hoekstra (guitar) (Whitesnake)
Mike Sweda (guitar) (Bulletboys)
Erik Turner (guitar) (Warrant)
David Michael Phillips (guitar) (King Kobra)
Tony Franklin (bass) (Ex-Blue Murder, Ex-The Firm)
Phil Soussan (bass) (Ex-Ozzy Osbourne)
Johnny Rod (bass) (King Kobra, Ex-WASP)
Jorgen Carlson (bass) (Gov’t Mule)
Erik Norlander (keyboards) (Lana Lane)