Now that Sister Sin is well into their third album (well, it’s their fourth if you count the indie release Dance Of The Wicked) and in the metal community they are now starting to make a name for themselves. The Swedish four-piece started out in 2002 and in 2003 their indie debut saw the light of day. But it wasn’t until 2008 and their first non indie debut, Switchblade Serenades, that they started to get noticed for real. Their mix of glam, sleaze and heavy metal proved to be quite successful and their charismatic singer Liv Jagrell appeared to be the perfect front woman for this band. However, the album was a bit uneven and it wasn’t until their last album True Sound Of The Underground (2010) that they found their style for real, dropping some of the glam and sleaze bits and going into a more metal direction. The music is not original by any means, but the songs on that album were all killers and the band does their thing with honesty and conviction and I’d go with that over originality any day. That album is still one of my metal faves so I was really looking forward to their new effort, Now And Forever.
Where it took me a little while to fully get the greatness of True Sound Of The Underground, this one downed me with a knockout straight away. This time they have gone for a slightly more commercial sound, but no worries, it’s still very metal and there is no cheese here at all, but it’s more classy and you can sense that they are going for broke this time. The production is a bit smoother and they use keyboards in the background, but the raw edges are still there and they keys just makes the sound thicker. And when Liv Jagrell opens her mouth and starts to sing, there is no doubt that she and the band mean business. That woman really knows how to express herself. She’s so full of power, attitude and piss and vinegar that you lose breath. She is by far the coolest and hardest woman in rock, at least in my book. Some people has compared her to Doro Pesch, but that’s not accurate as Pesch couldn’t hold a candle to Jagrell.
The songs on this album are all brilliant gut punchers that should appeal to any metal fan out there. The record’s opening track “End Of The Line” is heavy metal but very melodic and catchy, “The Fight Song” is a true jawbreaker, “In It For Life” is a hard and angry ass kicker with shitloads of attitude and first single “Hearts Of Cold” is just amazing, hard and heavy but with a pop chorus. “The Chosen Few” is just so damn catchy while it kicks your butt, “Shades Of Black” is a groovy and melodic killer and and the chorus to the heavy groove of “I’m Not You” really sticks. Of course, we get the mandatory cover on this album as well. Earlier covers by this band has been “Paint It Black” (Rolling Stones), “Make My Day” (Motörhead) and “24/7” (U.D.O.) and all of them were made great. This time, however, the choice of cover was hardly predictable. The finnishing ballad “Morning After” was originally written and recorded by Randy Piper’s Animal on their album Violent New Breed, but where the original is a hard and fast metal song, this one, as I wrote is a ballad. And Sister Sin is getting away with it big time. it’s a brave move and although I’m not sure if they made it better, the new arrangements are clearly different and it is at least as good as RPA’s version. Well done.
This is a stunning album and it would be foolish for anyone who is into metal not to check this band and album out. In fact, it’s unfair that they aren’t huge by now, but with a little luck all that might change with this album. Attitude, anger, melody, honesty, rawness, catchiness. These are words that describes this album well. This is actually irresistible. Nuff said!
Jon Wilmenius (9/10)
Tracklist:
01. MMXII
02. End of the Line
03. Fight Song
04. In It for Life
05. Hearts of Cold
06. The Chosen Few?
07. Hang ‘Em High
08. I’m Not You
09. Running Low
10. Shades of Black
11. Morning After
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