Band:	Sinbreed
Album:	Shadows
Style:	Power metal
Release date:	March 2014

01. Bleed
02. Shadows
03. Call To Arms
04. Reborn
05. Leaving The Road
06. Far Too Long
07. Black Death
08. Standing Tall
09. London Moon
10. Broken Wings

After a strong debut, Sinbreed have returned with an even better sophomore album. Shadows brings the same manner of speed-power, but with more energy and stronger songwriting to make Sinbreed a band on the rise.

Worthy of mention is the fact that Sinbreed contains one-half of Blind Guardian, namely guitarist Marcus Siepen and drummer Frederik Ehmke. I'm not going to spend this whole review examining how this measures up to Blind Guardian out of respect for an independent project, but I'll be a blind goat farmer on the moon if the intro to "Leaving The Road" doesn't sound like "Imaginations From The Other Side." (I'm not, for the record, a blind goat farmer on the moon.) Some of that lovely BG guitar tone lends a welcome familiarity to the work as well.

Fronted by Herbie Langhans, the Seventh Avenue veteran with a Jørn Lande-ish voice, Sinbreed are not exactly the most esoteric band out there, but the relatively bare-bones approach (for power metal, at least) suits them. Partly riff-driven and partly hook-driven, the songs are pretty simple and catchy; I'll admit it took a few listens to allow this album to do its work, but after letting them sink in, "Bleed" and "Call To Arms," among others, are some fantastic power metal pieces. Shadows mixes the excitement and vigor of new blood with the confidence and mastery of old blood in a manner appropriate to the band's membership.

While Shadows contains very little in the way of experimentation or extraordinary technical displays (outside of the drums, which are of a caliber typical to both high-speed metal and Frederik Ehmke), it does contain a sense of very capable musicianship nonetheless. Sinbreed can exert their abilities without being too flashy or ostentatious, which preserves the integrity of their direct, unrelenting approach. Shadows leads off with its strongest offerings, especially the phenomenal "Bleed," but the sublime "Broken Wings" anchors the second half of the album.

Sinbreed play crisp, no-frills power metal with strong vocals, memorable songs, and the sense of a massive metal beast lurking just below the surface. Shadows is an improvement over When Worlds Collide, which itself was a respectable album, so hopefully the future will bring even greater things for Sinbreed.