Metalcore from Nebraska, USA
Sinikil - Accurate Representation (Independent) 2004
1. "Your Way Out"
(4:13)
2. "The Face" (3:07)
3. "Now I Know" (5:08)
4. "Vent Again" (3:01)
5. "Empty Inside" (3:21)
6. "Can't Stop Looking" (3:34)
7. "Slow Drain" (5:14)
8. 'Who, What, When, Where, Why" (7:06)
9. "Simply Stated: Selfish" (3:12)
10. "This Fight" (3:14)
11. "The New Mindfuck" (3:05)
12. "3...2...1...Rage" (4:49)
13. "All I Wanted Was Goodbye" (3:54)
I've had this CD for months now and have put off reviewing it because frankly this sort of thing is not my first choice in music. I am just not a huge fan of most of the modern 'core styles of music, of which this CD would most likely fit. The band mixes groove based and hardcore riffs with the occassional thrash riff, downtuned guitars and a mixture of clean, emo and metalcore, almost death metal style vocals. The raw production are firmly rooted in the modern metalcore and nu-metal direction as well. Every once and a while there are hints of more traditional metal, as in the main riff of "Empty Inside", which sort of reminded me of Testament a bit. Unfortunately, unlike Testament, there are no blazing leads peppered throughout the songs. Rather Sinikil follow in the modern trend of simplistic songwriting and no guitar solos at all. To me, this is disappointing as I feel that a good guitar solo can not only spice up a song, but is actually an intregral part of the songwriting process, especially in metal. One thing that Sinikil does have going for them is some catchy songwriting. Surprisingly, despite this not being my cup of tea, I still walked away from the disc with one of the songs stuck in my head. Most of the songs actually have that 'grab you by the throat' hook that grabs your attention and makes you listen. No lyrics were offered in the liner notes, however, for the most part the lyrics are easily made out. These too are very much in line with what is going on in mallcore circles; anger and rage. Unfortunately this, combined with the lack of solos, didn't leave me with a positive impression of this CD. However, as I said at the beginning of this review, this type of music is not my first choice to begin with. Perhaps if I was 17 and a frequent shopper at Hot Topic in the malls of America I might have liked it better.