They say usually the third album in a band’s career is a safe point to know if they are going to make a lifelong impact through an original approach or remain relegated to bargain bin, local-only appeal. One only need to look at artists like Blind Guardian, Iron Maiden, Metallica, and Slayer in this regard for releases that have stood the test of time. Norwegian act Sinsid now reach that arc for their career with In Victory – gaining a new drummer Trygve A. Tvedt in the process while releasing nine new tracks of old-school driven heavy metal.
The brotherhood of the genre, the union of strength in numbers fighting against the forces of evil drives a lot of the lyrical content – evident in titles alone like “Metalheads”, “Wrath of Destruction”, and “Cult of Doom (Into the Fire)”. The rhythm section of Trygve and bassist Grzegorz Urbanski give a galvanizing, heads down push to the riffs – which often move around elements of blues, rock, thrash, or even Viking-like aspects to showcase a dynamic diversity that keeps the listener sharp and alert. The heads down nature of the gang background vocal support and slashing mid-tempo / driving riffs within the title track should resonate well for those into Grave Digger, Iron Maiden, and Iron Fire – the lead break intertwining circular melodies, bends, and flashy licks in that throwback guitar hero mold. At other times the more melodic, Sunset Strip-style musical aspects come into focus – “Headless Grinder” possessing elements of Y&T (“Don’t Stop Runnin’” specifically) against Terje Singh Sidhu’s passionate gritty, Blackie Lawless-ish bite vocally. You can tell improvements have been made especially on the production side – the tones and feel more modern than analog, yet not too digitally compressed to render each song faceless.
The struggle remains that for all the fire and brimstone present from Sinsid when it comes to the passion and obvious affinity for their craft – there’s nothing distinctive or remarkable to push them into that class of bands that they take influence from. Probably a band that makes a bigger impact live than on record – meaning In Victory is just another average outing that could appeal to some, while fade into oblivion for others.