SINNER "Santa Muerte"

SINNER

“Santa Muerte”

Mat Sinner has kept this gig going for 35 years by giving the fans what they want. Not even his position in the more visible and successful PRIMAL FEAR has doused his desire to keep SINNER going. I not only have to give him credit for sticking with it, but also having the guts to shake up the SINNER formula a bit. “Santa Muerte” is definitely a different kind of SINNER album.

No, it hasn’t gone techno, or nu metal or black metal. It sticks to the classic heavy metal template. But Mat went out and got himself a female singer here. And WOW, what a voice this lady has! Her name is Georgia Colleluori and she hails from the Italian band ETERNAL IDOL. She’s got an amazing set of pipes and brings a different feel to the band with her rich, bluesy singing. The change is immediately apparent on first song “Shine On’, which is great straight up metal in the SINNER tradition but with a much more varied flavor due to her singing. She also lends her talents to the likes of “Last Exit: Hell”, the super bluesy “Death Letter” and “The Wolf”. Mat really rolled the dice by adding Georgia to the band and came up with box cars.

The odd thing is, Georgia is not the lead singer on many tracks. Mat got none other than Ricky Warwick to do guest vocals on “What Went Wrong” and also Ronnie Romero from BLACKMORE’S RAINBOW to sing on “Fiesta y Copas” among others. Georgia lends backing vocals to every track. There’s nothing really wrong with Warwick or Romero’s vocals, but when you’ve got a hot hand like Georgia Colleluori, why not play it every time?

As for the music, “Santa Muerte” seems to draw a ton of influence from classic THIN LIZZY, with that patented LIZZY double guitar harmony super prominent on tracks like “What Went Wrong”, “Craving” and “Stormy Night". It’s almost too obvious in spots and I have to say, I would have liked a couple more of the fast, crunchy metal tracks like “Shine On” onboard.

35 years into SINNER’s career, the band took some risks to stay fresh and I’d say it turned out pretty well.

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