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Sinergy - Suicide By My Side

General Information

Original Author: -Orb-

Artist: Sinergy

Album: Suicide By My Side

Genre: Power Metal

Tracklist

01. I Spit On Your Grave
02. The Sin Trade
03. Violated
04. Me Myself My Enemy
05. Written In Stone
06. Nowhere For No One
07. Passage To The Fourth World
08. Shadow Island
09. Suicide By My Side
10. Remembrance

Sound

10 Sinergy have always had a fantastic metal sound to my ear, but their work has seemed to progress phenomenally from album to album. While their first album, "Beware The Heavens," seemed to be a little light, their progression to their next album "To Hell And Back," and finally to this album, "Suicide By My Side," has definitely been in the right direction. The sound simply defines Power Metal. Heavy guitar work with head-banging melodic riffs and thrashing guitar duels combined with classic metal drumwork, powerful singing, and fantastic bass lines make this album a solid 10 in my book. If I had to come up with something bad, the only thing I could possibly say is that I would prefer a higher balance of bass, as sometimes I'd like to hear Marco's bass lines louder.

Guitarwork

10 Sinergy have an amazing combination of guitarists. Alexi Laiho, lead guitarist of band Children of Bodom, combined with Roope Latvala, the second guitarist in Children of Bodom, create an outstanding combination. Besides the fantastic guitar riffs and overall playing throughout the album, the guitar battles between the two are really one of the major features of Sinergy that defines them. Also, Marco Hietala, the bassist of operatic metal band Nightwish, is the bassist on this album (although he left sinergy after this album was recorded due to his commitments to Nightwish). If you're a fan of Marco, which I can't really imagine not being one, then you'll notice immediately his positive influence on the band.

Lyrics

6 While the singing by Kimberly Goss is fantastic and fits the metal genre very well, the lyrics are rather corny. They're not as corny as speed metal band Dragonforce's lyrics, but they're still damn corny. While this album seems to be darker than the previous two, it still doesn't impress me with the lyrics.

Overall Impression

10 I chose to review this album as my first album review for a reason. This is my favorite album of all time for any band. I can't urge you strongly enough to take a listen to this album. I simply can't stop listening to it.

Song By Song Review

1 - I Spit On Your Grave: 9 The opener of this album is blazing. Right from the starting guitar riff to the guitar backgrounds, to the fantastic guitar solo battle between Alexi and Roope including a climactic harmony solo in the middle, to the outro matching the into, this song is fast. The constant guitar candy combined with Kimerbly's aggressive singing style makes this song a killer opening.

2 - The Sin Trade: 10 This song is one of my favorites. The opening guitar motif is clean and cliche metal. Throughout the song, even during main singing parts, Alexi is going all over the place, filling in the gaps with guitar backgrounds. As usual, the dueling solo makes me craving more. Oddly enough, this was the first song of Sinergy's that I ever heard, and it really turned me on to them.

3 - Violated: 7 While still a great track, Violated just doesn't impress me as much as the others on this record. The style involves tons of palm muted licks, and personally I think the balance could use more singing licks, it seems overly heavy on the staccato effect of the palm mute.

4 - Me Myself My Enemy: 10 This is my favorite Sinergy song. The opening motif just begs for head-banging, and the beat is so driving. The slow acceleration in the beginning really gets me into the song. I can't help but at least nod my head when listening to this song. The bass lines, the guitar riffs, the aggressive singing, and the driving drum beats make this my all time favorite song by Sinergy.

5 - Written In Stone: 8 Sinergy gives the listener a brief intermission between the aggressive power metal sounds with the intro to this song. It opens with a very nice acoustic melody, and switches back and forth throughout the song between electric and acoustic (or clean electric). An overall slower song, yet the chorus can be really driving with the syncopated drum hits that make me want to rock back and forth in my chair

6 - Nowhere For No One: 8 This song has many underlying elements and background guitar parts that are fantastic, but to me the beat just isn't that appealing, which is why it only receives an 8. Musically it's still fantastic, but it's just not one of my favorites to listen to all the time.

7 - Passage To The Fourth World: 9 In all three of their albums, Sinergy has included one song regarding "The Fourth World," a mythical place that seems to be something like metal heaven. This song's beat really takes the song. The combination of the odd chord progression, the bass lines, the drum beat, and the guitar lines really makes this a fun song to listen to.

8 - Shadow Island: 10 Sinergy's band members seem to like video games. In "To Hell And Back," they included a song called "Gallowmere," which is a tribute to the PS2 game "MediEvil." In this album, Shadow Island is a tribute to the game "Alone In The Dark." The song is fantastic. The intro is driving straight up into the verse. From there it only goes uphill.

9 - Suicide By My Side: 10 The album's namesake seems to do the album justice, representing the rest of the songs by showing a general Sinergy power style, with Kimberly singing a little more aggressively than in some of the other songs. The entire song is pure gold.

10 - Rememberence: 6 The album's closer seems to be a disappointment to me. The orchestral-sounding backgrounds to this piano solo are a nice touch, but I bought the album to listen to power metal. I enjoy classical music, but that's not what I was looking for in this album. It just doesn't match any of the rest of the songs.