ORIGINAL SIN — Sin Will Find You Out (review)

ORIGINAL SIN — Sin Will Find You Out album cover

Album · 1986 · Speed Metal

4.5/5 · 2015-11-08
adg211288

Obscure, Forgotten and Otherwise Hard to Find Metal Albums #1

Okay, this review is going to start off a bit different for me, as this is the first of what I hope to be many in a series of reviews for some of the more obscure, forgotten or otherwise hard to find (being available online no matter the legality of the download doesn't count) metal releases that I've found over the years. So with the preamble out of the way, let's begin.

Original Sin existed for a very brief time in the mid eighties. They released just this one album, entitled Sin Will Find You Out (1986) and were never heard from again. Adorning the cover artwork is a girl in the stages of putting on or taking off her bra. In a musical context this screams one thing: glam metal. Only Original Sin wasn't a glam metal act, but a full-on speed metal act, proving that a record should never be judged by its cover. This is a notion that could also be applied to the band themselves, as officially Original Sin were an all female band.

Except they weren't.

You see, the truth behind Original Sin was that they were a fabricated band much like the perhaps better known Exorcist, who were basically the band Virgin Steele in disguise, though the drummer was from a different outfit. Original Sin is actually basically the same band once again, but they've swapped David DeFeis (who sits in the producer's chair) for his sister Danae DeFeis (here using the pseudonym Danielle Draconis), who was the only actual female member of the band. The rest of the band were blokes using female names. Notably this includes Edward Pursino, who is still in Virgin Steele to this day. He went by the name Cynthia Taylor here though!

Why did they do this? Your guess is as good as mine. But despite the unusual history of Original Sin, their music was largely simplistic straight up speed metal. Sometimes though that is all you need. Sin Will Find You Out is surprisingly kickarse. I was honestly half-expecting some kind of spoof act. I'm instead reminded somewhat of the much more recent act Demona, but I find that this album sounds quite a lot stronger on all fronts. For the time period it's perhaps a bit typical sounding, but a fine example of eighties speed metal nonetheless. Danielle's vocals fit the music well. Her vocals are styled around the genre the band are playing so are quite different to the popular female vocalists of today's metal scene, but are not excessively rough either. I must admit, as a whole, Original Sin sounds a lot more in your face and direct than I ever recall Virgin Steele being.

This is quite a short album with just eight proper songs and a couple of tracks for a guitar solo piece and a bass solo piece, for a total time of just over the 33 minute mark. That's quite short by today's standards but I think an ideal length for an album like this. It's direct, never let's up the pace, and ultimately gets the job done. There are a couple of weird bits right at the start and very end of the album that I'm still not too sure what to make of, but everything in between is speed metal done right. I'm going to go with 4.5 stars for this.

more than 2 years ago
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666sharon666 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

It's a decent album Cat, though I understand where you are coming from.

adg211288 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

About the picture I've no idea. I presume so but don't know for certain.

TheHeavyMetalCat wrote:

more than 2 years ago

It sounds like an album I should try out, but I'm really not sure how I should feel about the whole pretending to be female business. I guess women in metal bands were much less common in 1986 but I can't see how hiring a few models to pose as the band (is one of those women on the profile picture even the actual singer of the band?) was going to help that situation. I presume it was a plot to sell records (sex sells and always has sold and always will sell and all that) but it seems pretty decitful to me. I'm a female myself and if I'd been around then and in a metal band I think I'd have been pretty pissed off by this band.

adg211288 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Speed metal is one of those genres that I pretty much ignored for a long time, despite owning (and loving) the early works of Helloween and Blind Guardian. There's a lot of good stuff out there. Still need to check out Exorcist though.

666sharon666 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Nice idea for a review series. I hadn't heard of this group until you added them the other day, though I was aware of Exorcist though I haven't ever listened to them. I'll have to try both bands out sometime.