Sanhedrin- Salvation Through Sin

Sanhedrin is a melodic blackened death metal band from the UK. The band formed in 2009 and has since released a demo and this full-length. They are armed with corpsepaint, keyboards, and some decent writing abilities. It is obvious when looking at the layout of the album and listening to the sound quality that this band takes their music very serious and aren't just some bedroom headbangers beating their instruments to death into a Guitar Hero microphone. For a debut full-length Sanhedrin definitely shows a great deal of potential.

The first thing that will come to the listeners attention is that Sanhedrin emphasizes keyboards in a big way. For many this may be a turn off (in most cases myself included) but somehow Sanhedrin manages to incorporate this element in a way that doesn't take away from the overall sound. This element actually beefs up the already epic atmosphere quite a bit and does so without becoming tedious. Salvation Through Sin is one of those albums that just simply works better when listened to from start to finish. This can be see as a pro or a con based on your personal point of view but in order to get the full experience it is a must.

The guitar playing on the album isn't anything particularly fancy, but it does fit what they do quite well and when intertwined with their ability to create a good song structure all in all, it comes out very effective. The vocals here are very interesting. Come to think of it, there isn't another vocalist that comes to mind to compare the style used here to. A mid ranged harsh vocal is used throughout most of the playtime and it can't really be described as a growl or a scream. Holloway has a fairly distinct voice and even though it is a harsh style it comes across as effortless in deliver which adds an interesting vibe to the performance.

Overall Salvation Through Sin isn't anything new or groundbreaking. The band still continuously holds your attention and shows enough skill in their style to make this release a success. It isn't often you find a band playing this style that doesn't go completely overboard with the symphonic elements, but luckily in this bands case they have no problem knowing when and where to draw the line. Many people will compare this release to bands like Dimmu Borgir but in more ways than one it seems that Sanhedrin has a better grasp on creating enjoyable music. Don't go into this expecting to have you mind blown and I think you'll be extremely happy with the result.