Shadow Kingdom Records is specializing in lightning up defenders of the classic Metal glory; think of other past and present labels such as e.g. the Miskatonik Foundation, Doomed Planet, High Roller Records, Steel Gallery, Eat Metal Records, Iron Kodex, O.P.M. Records...What? Never heard of them? Well, I suppose - then - SINISTER REALM should not be your cup of tea, really. Which is rather a pity for you, especially if you avidly declare your support to the mighty traditional/'true' Metal style...
...which is what SINISTER REALM throws on the table in their debut full album. The Pennsylvania-based quintet's 2008 demo circulated enough in underground circles and - finally - all its four tracks made it to this 2009 release. Witnessing the hordes of traditional Metal revivalists in Sweden and Germany the last 3-4 years, most of them offering successful works anyway, it is always nice to see the underground spirit of America is still alive and kicking. Let's not forget 80s US Metal bands inherited and filtered most of what British Metal of the early 80s generously achieved, adding their own specifications and rules.
SINISTER REALM is as classic/doom Metal as it can get, objections overruled. You may consider them to be an epic Metal band, due to some of the vocal patterns or enough of the pace choices, but I think what this band portrays is its love for the very spine of Metal music as we knew in its birth/prime. BLACK SABBATH (Dio era, the most), the dark side of BLUE OYSTER CULT, IRON MAIDEN (first four albums?), 70s JUDAS PRIEST, Ozzy's Rhoads era, DIO, the crawling side of MANOWAR, the theatrics of TITAN FORCE, CANDLEMASS and even RAINBOW (Rising era, of course). The compositions easily show the class of this band, no questions asked. The highlight is the impressive guitar melodies, worked at full level and always matching the pompous yet genuine vocal harmonies. Oriental smells, northern rides, British steels, epic outlooks, warrior vows, all these without a real pale flash in 46 minutes dressed in something so simple yet rarely witnessed even in 'true Metal' vanguards of today; music by heart...
If this band releases this album as its first one, I cannot even imagine how hopeful SINISTER REALM's future is, for Metal's sake. Try and capture the moments in Message From Beyond's atmosphere, March Of The Damned's lament, Enter The Sinister Realm's instrumental craze and Machine God's heroism and try to match Sinister Realm with most (labeled) Metal releases out the last couple of years. OK, promotion and mass hypnosis are lethal acts for the unspoken, but - at least - try and resist SINISTER REALM's authentic metallic craving before giving in for another commercial CD/download.

P.S.: What a fuckin' great cover...

Machine God