SINBREED — Master Creator (review)

Album · 2016 · Power Metal

4/5 · 2016-12-10
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There are plenty of metal bands out there whose output is best described as reliable. They are the type of band who prove themselves consistent time after time, but or the same reason don't usually offer up anything that will surprise you. I usually don't brand an artist like this unless they have five or more albums to their name but with their third album Master Creator (2016) German power metal act Sinbreed have taken another step to being one of these acts. When describing their music comparisons to Blind Guardian are easy to make due to the presence of Frederik Ehmke on drums (the previous album Shadows (2014) also featured guitarist Marcus Siepen but he's stepped down from Sinbreed on this album), but they are not a clone act along the lines of Savage Circus. Just on the same page. If you enjoy the harder edges German sound of the power metal genre, Sinbreed is a band you need to be listening to.

Master Creator, as hinted above, isn't going to serve up anything of surprise to anyone who has heard either of the previous Sinbreed albums, When Worlds Collide (2010) and Shadows, or even to those who know what the typical German power metal sound is. There are some bagpipes on the last track On the Run, but as any Blind Guardian or Grave Digger fan will tell you, that's not at all unusual for German power metal. The whole 'it's quite typical of the genre' description makes the band and this album seem lesser than they actually are though, because while Sinbreed aren't reinventing any wheels they have always clearly been a band who know what they're about and that's why their albums always come across as being of very high quality. A go in and get the job done with minimal fuss kind of band. While not very exciting to explore since you know what you're getting, acts and albums like this rarely fail to hit the spot they're aiming for and that's definitely the case here as well.

Sometimes acts like this really hit one out of the park as well, but most of the time they're just very consistent. I will be honest here, out of the three Sinbreed albums to date this one does rank third to my ears, so its not one of those home run albums. It's another solid album from them though and highlights from the tracks this time around include the opening duo of Creation of Reality and Across the Great Divides along with the Master Creator title track and The Riddle. I think it mostly seems a step back from Shadows because the previous album seemed to be hinting that they were developing some more thrash metal based influences which would have really stirred up their sound a bit if they'd taken them further here, but such a thing hasn't materialised.

Master Creator is worth picking up if you're already a fan of the band/genre but if you're only just discovering Sinbreed I recommend starting at the beginning with When Worlds Collide. Now that's an album and a half if ever there was one...this is good supplemental material though.