Ladies and gentleman, first I wish for all of you to stand up, yeah right there in your seat and share applause of Adrie Kloosterwaard of the Dutch Death Metal veteran band of SINISTER. You probably why you have to get up and cheer, well it is pretty simple. Without Kloosterwaard's will power and decisions, SINISTER would have succumbed to ashes. Well, this is probably not an enough reason because it is pretty general, so I will try again. Without Kloosterwaard's patience and force of will, SINISTER would have been done for, singing a swan song and following the reaper to the shores of hell. After the band's last album, "Legacy Of Hate", the entire lineup, aside from Kloosterwaard went to find itself in another place, probably another band or existing project. A year afterwards, Kloosterwaard didn't let slide south and recruited an entire new lineup that the only thing they had in common was that they came from a band called ABSURD UNIVERSE, also led Kloosterwaard, call it not by chance, I call great backup plan. Anyway, with this new lineup of SINISTER, "The Carnage Ending"was bred, also via Massacre Records. Life goes on but sadly to say that the quality didn't.

What made me a true fan of SINISTER was the fact that they are dedicated and consistent and it has been evident within their music. Along with the modernization of Death Metal music, which made it into something rather scarce and even too close to modern Hardcore, there have been these past oriented bands to set the record straight for old school Death Metal. SINISTER, along with being one of the veterans, also can be considered as giants of Death Metal in general, and in Europe in particular, has been releasing album after album sharing their appreciation to horror, occultism, unholy rituals and savagery. Their malignant approach knocked me down right on with my first listening sessions with "Cross The Styx" and my personal favorite, "Diabolical Summoning". It didn't sound like the band DEATH at all because the Dutch had their own personality when it comes to forging Death Metal, chunky, ruthless, low tuned, mellow and meaty. Last time I explored "Legacy Of Hate" and found it quite soothing, a continuance for a great work done. Nevertheless, as I was so please to receive their new offering of "The Carnage Ending", I was rather disappointed in the end as the song remained the same without anything else to add.

It is hard for me to say this but "The Carnage Ending" is just another title, one more signal of this great band, nothing special, no changes, always charging on and on relentlessly, oppressing the believers against their gods and feasting their flesh. Some might raise an eyebrow and would think that I am not too consistent myself as SINISTER's musical uniformity has been the reason for my admiration, yet this is not the case. Even with the fact that "The Carnage Ending"yielded under "Legacy Of Hate" while barely reaching its level, I still admire SINISTER's tendencies. However, the bottom line shows that everything depends on whether they hit or miss, wrote adequate music or just repeated themselves endlessly. Regretfully, this time the latter triumphed. Surly that I had the chance to taste more of this band's malevolent riffing, defying grinding and blast beat menaces, the all so powerful grunting vocals and morbid lead guitar sections, when available of course, but I couldn't help noticing how monotonic in general their material sounds. Kloosterwaard assembled a great crew and I am sure that ABSURD UNIVERSE have been following at least a bit of SINISTER's direction, however there is still work to be done. Even the chosen covers, except "Dethroned Emperor" of the CELTIC FROST fame, sounded too much in the same vein of their own material, or is it the other way around.

Tracks that did bring me sweet blooded memories of the old were "The Carnage Ending", "Transylvania (City Of The Damned)"blasting like a deathly Thrash song with powerful chorus, "Defamatory Content" and "The Final Destroyer", where the demon barfed meat right in my direction. As for the covers,"Dethroned Emperor" was a special moment where SINISTER tribute a Doom Metal track with finesse. Furthermore, I liked the album's production as it preserved the same old sound pattern of the band that has been their powerhouse flavour for years. "The Carnage Ending" might be one of SINISTER's weak career points, but it still showed me that with the power of will you can do anything.