Sainted Sinners
Sainted Sinners
El Puerto Records
2017
Sainted Sinners seem to be a project made up of former members of a variety of German bands. Firstly American singer David Reece, who made a name for himself fronting primarily German bands ie Accept, Bonfire etc., but not managing to stay for long and mr Frank Pane – another Bonfire alumnus. Ferdy Doernberg on keys – best known for being the main guy behind Rough Silk and a variety of other projects as well as a resident, the past few years in Axel Rudi Pell and rounding the band off Malte Frederik Burkert on bass and Berci Hirleman on drums.
The style of songs varies between Bonfire like hard rock, Kiss at their most rocking and borderline hard n heavy bands, never really galvanizing into proper “metal” however. Reece adapts a vocal style not unlike the gruffer moments of Paul Stanley, with a bit of Shortino for good measure and all the while he’s fairly good, he doesn’t manage to inject the songs with any more oomph, than they already may have.
“Knight of the Long Knives” is an unfortunate word play, given the background, but a decent opener none the less and one of the more metallic numbers.
“Beauty in the Beast” has a more prominent organ in the background lending it a Deep Purple air of sorts, but it’s more restless… with maybe a bit of AC/DC thrown in as well…
In that context I expected “Maybe She’s Got Balls” to really justify my gut feeling, but it really seemed more to dwell between Purple/Whitesnake/Hughes.
“We Are All Sainted Sinners” is a nice enough “title” track, with a biting riff, pretty straightforward rocking in a non-apologetic way.
“Blue Lightning Man” begins with a pretty bluesy intro and rocks in the middle – again keeping up with the DP/Snake pretenses…
“The Love That I Have Found” tries to be an epic ballad in the way that some later day Whitesnake, Coverdale/Page, Bohnam songs are, but it’s nowhere near as successful or well-orchestrated as say “Forevermore” or “Why Don’t You Stay for a little While” or even “Change of a Season”.
“Did You” seems to step back n forth between a ballad and a more dynamic, almost “Dio” like song.
I dunno where “In Need” comes from – but it sounds like a bad cabaret number… sorry.
“Evangeline” name checks an unlikely or if you will quite rare name, in a bad Kiss meets Purple way.
While apart from a nice enough “Shine Diamond Girl” pretty much goes through the motions without much of an actual impact, as its bridge/chorus leaves you with a sense of deja vu.
“Truth is a Lie” tries to be a cool‘n’smooth conclusion, but feels all in all a bit standard and unimaginative.
Largely uneven Sainted Sinners’ eponymous debut is not larger than the sum of its parts. Give it a spin if you like Bonfire or the sole Accept album with Reece, but I can’t say it really won me over.
The style of songs varies between Bonfire like hard rock, Kiss at their most rocking and borderline hard n heavy bands, never really galvanizing into proper “metal” however. Reece adapts a vocal style not unlike the gruffer moments of Paul Stanley, with a bit of Shortino for good measure and all the while he’s fairly good, he doesn’t manage to inject the songs with any more oomph, than they already may have.
“Knight of the Long Knives” is an unfortunate word play, given the background, but a decent opener none the less and one of the more metallic numbers.
“Beauty in the Beast” has a more prominent organ in the background lending it a Deep Purple air of sorts, but it’s more restless… with maybe a bit of AC/DC thrown in as well…
In that context I expected “Maybe She’s Got Balls” to really justify my gut feeling, but it really seemed more to dwell between Purple/Whitesnake/Hughes.
“We Are All Sainted Sinners” is a nice enough “title” track, with a biting riff, pretty straightforward rocking in a non-apologetic way.
“Blue Lightning Man” begins with a pretty bluesy intro and rocks in the middle – again keeping up with the DP/Snake pretenses…
“The Love That I Have Found” tries to be an epic ballad in the way that some later day Whitesnake, Coverdale/Page, Bohnam songs are, but it’s nowhere near as successful or well-orchestrated as say “Forevermore” or “Why Don’t You Stay for a little While” or even “Change of a Season”.
“Did You” seems to step back n forth between a ballad and a more dynamic, almost “Dio” like song.
I dunno where “In Need” comes from – but it sounds like a bad cabaret number… sorry.
“Evangeline” name checks an unlikely or if you will quite rare name, in a bad Kiss meets Purple way.
While apart from a nice enough “Shine Diamond Girl” pretty much goes through the motions without much of an actual impact, as its bridge/chorus leaves you with a sense of deja vu.
“Truth is a Lie” tries to be a cool‘n’smooth conclusion, but feels all in all a bit standard and unimaginative.
Largely uneven Sainted Sinners’ eponymous debut is not larger than the sum of its parts. Give it a spin if you like Bonfire or the sole Accept album with Reece, but I can’t say it really won me over.