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07/15/2005: "SIN ORIGIN review found at LUNAR HYPNOSIS webzine!"

SIN ORIGIN "In the Presence of a Dread Magician" CD review
by Joe Mlodik
http://cp05.ionhosting.com/%7Ejoelh/sinoriginreviews.htm#in

* SIN ORIGIN "In the Presence of a Dread Magician" CD
Blackmetal.com Records - 2005

I still remember my first time reading about SIN ORIGIN over at blackmetal.com, and instantly saying to myself ‘great, another Darkthrone clone.’ That was back when they had first released their ‘Night Aeternal’ demo, and that release also had a cover image depicting band member Funeris looking a hell of a lot like Zephyrous’ from Darkthrone’s opus ‘A Blaze in the Northern Sky.’ Therefore it seemed a band named after a Darkthrone song, and a similar demo cover left me very skeptical of Sin Origin. But you know what, I’d be damned to the fieriest pits of hell if I didn’t say this album completely stunned me and fucking smoked me good by how damn crushing it is.

SIN ORIGIN hails from Canfield, Ohio USA, which isn’t exactly a large breeding ground for extreme metal, especially not the blacker side of the genre, but perhaps after this spectacular debut more bands will start to arise from this silent land. I’ll put it simple, Sin Origin fucking kills! These guys play epic high speed black metal unlike really any other I’ve heard before. Sin Origin writes unbelievably lengthy songs (shortest song is fourteen minutes) that are largely blistering fast black metal compositions, but they also show influences from thrash, doom (somewhat), and normal heavy metal all interwoven perfectly, to form the perfect album. There are also these sudden break downs in the blackened rage, which lead to calmer parts or some of their other influences. And my fucking god is Funeris one hell of guitarist! The sound coming out of this guy’s guitar is incredible, I was banging my head throughout this whole album, and I’ve got short hair. Then there’s the other half of the band Nemesis [who] is a very talented technical drummer, possibly one of the best black metal drummers I’ve ever heard. Funeris also handles the evil shrieks, which I must admit somewhat remind me of the vocals Ihsahn from Emperor was using on their Prometheus album, but Funeris adds a bit more grimness to them.

Choosing favorites from this album is no easy task since the whole thing is godly, but seriously the sixteen minute piece ‘The Devil, with seven more evil’ is one of the sickest black metal songs ever. The riffs in this song are massive and that drum roll solo at about the ten minute mark, goddamn brilliant! But ya know what, after this song things just keep on going strong, the awesome riffs keep coming, Nemesis continues to pound the hell out of the drums, and Funeris screams out his evil poetry in a truly malicious manner.

Frankly one of the things that always disappointed me about the American black metal scene is the way [too] many bands from here always just copied the Scandinavian ones and never stopped to think up their own ideas (i.e. Sothis, Black Witchery, Thornspawn, etc). Sin Origin isn’t one of these [clones] though, there’s only one Sin Origin, and their debut album ‘In the Presence of a Dread Magician’ is quite possibly the best American black metal album ever. I really can’t recommend this album enough. If you’re a black metal fan your utterly required to buy this album without delay, and you can get both this new album and the bands previous demo from blackmetal.com ... Order it now!

*(Score: 10 out of 10 )
By JJM
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