Weapons to Hunt – Blessed in Sin
With our metal world comprised of “features EX-members of insert band name here” bands, it really isn’t hard to find ex members of Sinister floating around the brutal chum bucket community due to that bands longstanding revolving door policy. The Dutch band Weapons to Hunt is a new death metal entity with an affinity for the brutal, featuring all 4 members who spent time either creating, or killing for Sinister. Ron van de Polder (founding member for Sinister), Adrie Kloosterwaard, Paul Beltman, and sessions bass handled by ex-Sinister 4 string slinger Bas Brussaard are all in attendance, but thankfully W.T.H. Is far more than a family reunion emulating a once godly sound. Weapons to Hunt does glean a bit of teched out fire from the Cross the Styx era (one of my all-time favorite death metal albums) with some pretty amazing and atypical, free flowing riffs, but the end result sounds a bit higher tuned and tight than found in Sinister’s past. “Bullets for the Assassin” unleashes awe inspiring riff after riff that buries the senses in technically perplexed fretboard wizardry, yet maintains enough of a melodic spirit in the song writing to not confuse or cause panic attacks. In fact, a lot of these songs sound linear and literally cram packed with really great guitar parts. There isn’t 1 uninteresting, or “whatever” riff on this album. WTH could have cut up and streamlined these songs a bit and ended up with 4 more albums worth of material, but the devil is in the details and the resulting firestorm known as Blessed in Sin is quite an eye opening album. The vocals are just a touch quiet in the mix, but this is a good thing, allowing the music to rise to the surface and torment your air guitar with advanced note runs and inverted chord structures sure to puzzle the brainiest of mathematicians. The vocals center on a rather dimensionless brutal style, but they suit this album well… which is just odd to say. I tend to be tired by this type of performance, but the music is so good, I think a crazy crooner would have detracted something away from the true meat being flopped on your paper plate. WTH have chiseled out an albums worth of endlessly impressive and modern death metal, riling in the flames of the ancient sound and with 1 release, have nullified every post “Afterburner” Sinister album. I liked Diabolical Summoning quite a bit when it came out, but I found it to be a definite departure struggling in the wake of the eternally great Cross the Styx, but Blessed in Sin would have been the logical, if not perfect follow-up to Sinisters debut. They took the initial template, ran with it, but tightened everything up/remained Dutch sounding, rather than trying to adapt more of an American aesthetic like the resulting Diabolical Summoning. Weapons to Hunt are the band to watch. If you’ve been tired of the brutal genre for years as I have, I would recommend you come out of retirement, slip that dead skin mask back on and get ready to dance around your woodshed in ladies undies, for Blessed in Sin is worth the attention and have given me that spark of excitement that has somehow been lost along the way when it comes to technical death metal. -Marty
Vic Records
For info and samples, go here: http://www.vicrecords.com
Worm Gear 
You had me hooked once you said this could have been the logical follow up to Cross The Styx. Needing something new to listen to today, I did an instant download of the album. Excellent tempo and rhythm changes in the riffs, yet they give you plenty to latch onto. This album hit the spot.