Norway, arguably home to the most black metal bands of any country in the world, firmly has its finger on the pulse of metal in general, being famous for bands in the folk and Viking subgrenese as well. SINSID seeks to return metal to its more traditional roots, sounding more like DIO, METALLICA, or RAINBOW. Vocalist Terje Sinigh Sidhu initially pursued a career in pro wrestling in San Bernardino, even becoming the NWF champion in 2002. He would soon decide focus on his family, choosing to wrestle only sporadically until leaving for good in 2012. Sidhu briefly joined ZENO MORF as lead vocalist in 2005, released an album with them in mid-2008 but ultimately left the band in 2009. He would soon form SINSID in 2012 originally as a cover band. They eventually evolved into writing original music in early 2015 and would release their debut in 2018 titled "Mission from Hell" amid the turmoil of numerous lineup changes.

Seemingly forming a stable lineup from their debut record, SINSID will soon release their sophomore effort "Enter the Gates" on September 18^th on both digital platforms and vinyl. Their mission: pure old school metal with catchy choruses, fist-pumping anthems, raw hellish vocals and an attempt to bring back the 1980s as a vibe. Do they succeed? Well, they bring that early 80s trope of beginning albums with an intro track to set the mood with "Rise of Fury". It's ominous and imposing, the guitar creating dissonances to give the listener that unease and off-kilter excitement to see what comes next. Title track "Enter the Gates" continues right from the intro with a Viking-worthy anthem to fight "side by side in glory!". Then "Fighting with Fire" begins with an interesting descending guitar run before diving into a riff very similar in structure to MEGADETH's "In My Darkest Hour", chugging and building while lead guitarist Sten Roger Knutsen shows off his tapping technique in the solos. "Hail to Gods" is slower and features a nice synth solo run. A clean guitar intro opens "Point of No Return", alternates between electrified and clean sections and the singer sounds a bit like Till Lindemann from German industrial metal band RAMMSTEIN. The 6^th track - coincidentally or intentionally - named "666" also features cool, clean guitar arpeggios and a nice sing-along chorus. "Dawn of Night" gets a pat on the back for the complex rhythmic drumwork of Robin Wick with a fast, flashy, captivating solo as an outro. Final two tracks "Roll the Dice" and "Freedom of the Sea" are filled with more rhythmically complex and interesting riffage as well.

Overall, the first half of the album is filled with predictable and unappealing cliché riffs and lyrical material while the second half redeems it a bit with complex rhythms and more captivating themes. Aside from its anthemic appeal, the song "Enter the Gates" is a rather repetitive and creatively dull song. Many of the riffs throughout the album are simply alternate picked eighth notes ending in a chord, similar in structure to the machine-gun like section of METALLICA's "One". Other times, there wasn't even really a riff, the guitar would simply move between two chords to signify a verse. It simply got old after a while and once I had to focus on other elements, particularly the vocals, all I could think was Terje Singh Sidhu needs to dial back his growl factor because his clearer singing voice shines through at times and would help to alleviate the grating my ears received. The drum patterns are wonderful and the bass runs - of what I could hear due to it being lower in the mix - are fun too. It would be nice if the mix were a bit less 80s influenced too, but it does a nice job of recreating that particular sound even if it's fallen out of fashion.