CD-Review: Sinner - "Touch Of Sin 2"

Mat Sinner has become a true instituition in Hard Rock and Heavy Metal. Beside his activities with Primal Fear, Voodoo Circle or Rock Meets Classic, he partly owes this to his early records with his own band SINNER. Sadly most of these albums are out of stock nowadays and are sold to horrible prices on Ebay. This was reason enough for Mat to re-record some of his best songs from this early days and put it on the new record, called "Touch Of Sin 2".





The title is a bit misleading, because the album is not a follow-up to his record "Touch Of Sin" from 1985 and it didn't consists of every song of this release. You'll find also some tracks from other albums and three brand new songs. So what would you expect from such a record? Yes, a trip back in time to the glory 80's - this is exactly what you get here. I must confess, I'm not very familiar with the early stuff Sinner did, so I can't compare the re-recordings with the original tunes, but I think this is a good thing to be more objective here.

Fact is that tracks like "Bad Girl", "Concrete Jungle", "Knife In My Heart" or "Comin' Out Fighting" are great party anthems with an unmistakeable 80's vibe. These are songs for each Hard Rock Party!
Most tracks on "Touch Of Sin 2" are very riff-oriented, so don't expect many well-developed choruses or something like that. Just bang your head and have fun. "Emerald" is a good example for this.

What strikes me is the fact that the new tracks show a more melodic side of Sinner. Just listen to "Don't Believe A Word" - this one is a true earworm and also "Blood On The Sand" is more melody-focused when it comes to guitarlines. Nevertheless the new songs fit very well into the whole album concept.

All in all Sinner have just a little problem when it comes to variety. Many riffs, melodies and arrangements are similar to each other. Maybe Sinner should have tried to add more different colours to their songs. This would have been more interesting.

Production is transparent and punchy - you get a perfect sound, which is up to date. The band doesn't try to sound too old-school and that's good. Crunchy guitars dominate the whole album so every Hard Rocker should be pleased here. Speaking about Mat Sinners voice: you can love it or you hate it. I know some people, who say he can't sing. I wouldn't go this far. Mat's voice fits to his music very well. For sure, he isn't the best singer, but he has something unique in his voice.

So, let's make this short: "Touch Of Sin 2" is for all Hard Rock fans out there, who love loud riffs and songs with 80's mood. It's that simple. Due to the updated sound and new tunes, this collection of songs is also very recommended to each Sinner fan, even if you have the original albums already. For those of you who want to discover Sinner's eraly works it's a good and fairly priced opportunity to pick up all these songs, you may have missed. Good job!

8/10

Tracklist:

01. Born To Rock
02. Comin' Out Fighting *
03. Bad Girl *
04. Knife In My Heart *
05. Concrete Jungle *
06. Don't Believe A Word *
07. Shout
08. Germany Rocks
09. Danger Zone
10. Emerald
11. Blood On The Sand
12. Lost In A Minute
13. Masquerade
14. Heat Of The City

* best tracks