To be perfectly honest I stopped listening to Sinister after the release of the band’s Bastard Saints EP, and figured I shouldn’t even bother with the band’s later work after hearing many friends say how awful Creative Killings and Savage Or Grace albums were. Needless to say I wasn’t too upset to hear the band had split up in 2003 and went on to form a new group called Infinited Hate. Two years later, Displeased Records sent me a promo copy of Infinited Hate’s Heaven Termination CD and I waited another two years later to finally listen to it.

I just wasn’t looking forward to listening to a new album from a band featuring members from a band I really used to like 15 years ago but had been told had gone "down hill" in recent years. Despite my apprehension I decided to finally listen to this album with an open mind and, I must admit, Heaven Termination surprised me. A lot. I was expecting this album to really suck, so I was definitely surprised to hear some really good catchy riffs, solid drumming and inhumanly raspy vocals spewing out of my speakers.

The album’s line-up consists of former Sinister members Rachel Heyzer-Kloosterwaard and Aad Kloosterwaard on vocals, Ron van de Polder on guitars and bass and Scarve drummer Dirk Verbeuren behind the kit. With all of the former Sinister members involved in the band it’s impossible to not compare the two bands, and, honestly, there are a lot of similarities between the two bands, despite the band’s insistence to the contrary. Many of the riffs sound very Sinister-like only with faster, tighter and more technical blasting.

The production is a little rough for my liking and I ended up having to make a lot of adjustments to my stereo’s equalizer to give the music a cleaner sound, otherwise it becomes a little difficult to distinguish sounds as it all kind of bleeds together, but, I’ve heard worse productions than this so it’s really not too bad.

The vocals are a little disappointing as there really isn’t much variety in the vocal delivery, it’s pretty much just raspy yelling from beginning to end, with the occasional backing vocals added throughout. The riffs range from being incredibly catchy to being incredibly unimaginative, but the tracks that are catchy make the material on this album worth checking out at least once.

While I’d given up on Sinister years ago, I realize that move was premature as these members have a lot left to offer. While this is hardly a life-altering and genre redefining album, Heaven Termination is a solid slab of high-paced old school Dutch death metal and despite it’s flaws, it’s still got me interested in hearing more. In fact, I think I’m going to go dig up my old Sinister albums, and track down the ones that I missed. Decent!

Written By: Teufel