If you’re willing to sift through the dross out there, past the Darkthrone clones, Dream Theater rip offs, and Killswitch Engage imitators, you will likely discover this gem of a debut album from Filipino band Sin. Awesomely titled 'Audio Summoned Flesh', inside it are ten unpredictable songs that are groove-laden, violent, progressive, and effin’ heavy. We're talking tanks and giant robots heavy here. Sin's music really sounds as if large chunks of metal were dropping from the sky and crushing whatever they land on.

For fans of intense stuff, it's on songs such as the opener 'Amorphosis' and its follow up, 'Audio Summoned Flesh', where Sin establish their originality. They may be sounding just as pissed as so many other bands, but a lot of gray matter obviously went into their writing process. Praising the band's chops cannot be neglected either. Somewhere in the running time of 'Equilibrium Supremacy', 'Pilgrimage', and 'Burning Hour' are these jaw dropping guitar solos that certify Gilchrist Tan and Rommel Vasquez axe-tandem as shred-masters. You're tempted to call them a pair of wankers too.

While singer Charles Daza’s vocal style rarely varies throughout 'Audio Summoned Flesh', his constant hollers take a break on the instrumental 'Deathillion 2', which is the most peculiar track on the album. Twisting this way and that across its eight-minute length, it compels the listener to quietly absorb its nuances. The track's hypnotic power will leave you staring into space as its notes bathe your ears in emotional syrup and neoclassical guitar licks.

But the band still has a lot of unspent anger to exorcise from their hairy selves—there is enough hair on Charles Daza's head alone to cover Macoy Manuel's drumkit, no kidding—and it comes out like a boiling stream (like urine, you're tempted to think) in 'Eternal Bateria' and its evil twin, 'Burning Hour'.

Being an album whose appeal would crossover into any metal genre affiliated with "core" and possessing a foundation in the extreme stuff, 'Audio Summoned Flesh' has a lot to offer the metalhead craving a brutal fix. Ignoring its epic flourishes, cybernetic themes, and robotic precision, beyond being a likely soundtrack for the next Terminator movie, 'Audio Summoned Flesh' is also a record custom-made for the circle pit crowd. Kids will beat the shit out of each other when music like this is playing. In fact, they have beaten the shit out of each other—in the Philippines at least.

Scoring high for its overall quality but faltering a bit in the lyrical dimension, nonetheless, Sin are a band to be reckoned with. If you aren't convinced, then based on the strength of this first album and given a little time, they are growing into a band to be reckoned with. So watch out, bitch.

Rating: 8 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Miguel Miranda
02/10/2009 11:19