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September 7, 2008 |
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By Wade O'Neill
April 11, 2005
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In 2005, many bands will release their overdue follow-ups to past successes. DEMONS & WIZARDS will strike back with their next album, BRUCE DICKINSON is slated to release his answer to 1998's "The Chemical Wedding", and SUMMONING will return to ensure that the "Album of the Year" race is a photo finish. But for me personally, the most anticipated disc of 2005 is SINERGY's follow-up to "Suicide By My Side". The band hope to release their fourth full-length, "Sins Of The Past", before the end of the year, so there's no better time to kickstart the hype machine and reflect back on SINERGY's past sins and triumphs, right here on METALEATER.
SINERGY take a lot of crap from the American press, and to this day, metalheads see the band as a glorified side project rather than a legitimate creative force. If anything is to blame for this it's SINERGY's debut album. "Beware The Heavens" has a wannabe-goth vibe that betrays its true metal axework. In my opinion, vocalist Kimbery Goss may have tried too hard to sound "pretty", and as a result, stayed in the shadow of Tarja Turunen and other singers who do "pretty" better. On their first album, it seemed as though SINERGY were trying to capitalize on the success of bands that combined metal music with vocals that were anything but. Even the lineup screamed "side-project". It featured Jesper Strömblad whose main commitment was to IN FLAMES, and ARCH ENEMY bassist Sharlee D'Angelo, who may very well be in an unofficial contest with Steve DiGiorgio to see who can play in the most bands. Joining Jesper on guitars was Alexi Laiho, better known for his work with CHILDREN OF BODOM.
The drummer, Ronny Milianowicz , was as competent a player as he was expendable. From a listener's perspective, "Beware The Heavens" is pretty useless, but that's not to say it had no purpose. It allowed Goss to adjust to her new role as lead vocalist, and on the next album, she was able to sing with the power and confidence that the stronger material needed.
2000's "To Hell And Back" is the first essential SINERGY album. I wouldn't say that it's essential with a capital 'E', but it's pretty damn close. The band became more of a Finnish super-group: Jesper was replaced by Roope Latvala, formerly of Finnish trash legends STONE (currently in CHILDREN OF BODOM). On bass, SINERGY procured the talents of Marco Hietala, who is known nowadays in NIGHTWISH, but should be known for his material with TAROT. Although drummer Tommi Lillman lacked an impressive metal resume, his glam-rock pose in the "To Hell And Back" booklet made up for it. Musically, "To Hell And Back" saw SINERGY graduate from "side-order" to "main course". The gothiness was turned down, the aggression turned up. The guitarists proved that they could shred within the confines of melodic material. Meanwhile, Goss' female rock influences became more manifest; more importantly, she started developing her own personality and style. Goss even pulls off a Mustaine-like snarl in "Return To The Fourth World".
Other highlights include "The Bitch Is Back", which is more fiery than the album cover, and "Lead Us To War", where Marco Hietala supplies some of the best backing vocals in history.
Fast forward two years...
The year: 2002. I'm not sure about the exact date, but the weather was warm and seasonable. I was an innocent virgin boy, with plans to study hard and go to law school. That was until I heard an album so untamed, so unabashed in its ferocity it changed me forever. That album was "Suicide By My Side".
Any album that opens with someone hocking a giant loogie can't be anything but awesome. Firstly, the songwriting duties were shared between the band members, so it's surprising that the end product sounds so cohesive. Lyrically, the album oscillates between cold gray hopeless and white-hot anger. Goss' vocals are angrier and more metal than ever before. Forget the comparisons to other female singers. Few singers of any genre or gender come close to Goss' intensity on this album. Somewhere in her feminine frame lurked a junkyard dog, one that was starved over the years, beaten, taunted, and on "Suicide By My Side" unleashed! Describing the guitars would sound more like reading the settings off a food processor. They slice, dice, mince, chop, and puree the listener. Not a single ear is spared. The bass is played with the tact and precision you'd expect from a veteran like Marco Hietala: it's the aggression and hunger of his performance that's shocking after all these years!
And if drums could talk, Lillman's would scream, "Help!!! Police!!!! There's a severe battery in progress!!!"
"Suicide By My Side" isn't an album so much as a bludgeoning, a crash course in metal. Yngwie J. Malmsteen might have coined the phrase "Release The *%$#ing Fury", but for SINERGY, it's an apt mission statement. And while Malmsteen's antics might have unnerved a stewardess or two, SINERGY's riffs would have brought the entire plane down-in flames! And yet, somehow, the album manages to remain melodic and catchy, even as it bashes your skull into pate. "Suicide By My Side" is a must have, but I wouldn't recommend it to someone new to metal; it's far too powerful. After all, when people meet you for the first time, they shake your hand. They don't send a battering ram into your face, let alone a thousand of them.
The Future
One of the great injustices in the history of mankind is the fact that SINERGY often take a backseat to CHILDREN OF BODOM. I'm not taking anything away from Laiho's ability as a guitar player; "Suicide By My Side" is proof of his prowess. Sadly, Alexi's staccato growl, and Warman's sugary keyboards do nothing but cover the guitar work with unnecessary sprinkles and frosting - in my opinion anyway. Although I would have preferred a shorter wait, I can only do so much complaining now that "Sins Of The Past" is nearing release. The right side of my brain tells me that "Suicide By My Side" was so good-a veritable shooting star moment in metal that its power could not be recaptured again. But in the 80's I'm sure people were wondering the same thing about MAIDEN. "Oh nothing will come close to the power of Number Of The Beast". Out popped "Piece Of Mind" to prove them wrong. With SINERGY's new one, I hope the band carry their momentum forward.
I hope the vocals cut with similar anger, and the guitars sever just as many ears. Will history be made again?
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