Review by Krys on January 17, 2002.

Oh, not nice... Sinergy’s 3rd release “Suicide By My Side” starts with very tasty intro to ‘Spit On Your Grave’ and I hope that grave is not mine cause I didn’t do anything wrong during the last 12 months but Atomic... that’s a different story. He gave them 3 out of 10 for “To Hell and Back” and I guess he got what he deserved. Nice job Kimberly... OK, jokes aside.

I hope no one expected our Finns to change their style ‘cause “Suicide By My Side” is exactly in the same vein as their previous releases, and by that I mean it’s a good power-heavy metal with excellent guitar work courtesy of Children Of Bodom axeman Alexi Lahio. But there is more to this band than just simply outstanding solos, catchy riffs or plainly Alex (although I don’t think without him this band would even exist).

Not taking away from their previous effort, which by the way I score much higher than my cohort, the overall songwriting has improved and all compositions sound much tighter and even though they are quite melodic they still provide a good dose of whup-ass. With Kimberly’s voice that has a great command and with plenty of its range, she adds a lot of diversity to the otherwise not too convoluted song structures.

Analogous to any typical power-heavy album, “Suicide by My Side” ranges from fast tracks like opener ‘I Spit on Your Grave’ or ‘Violated’ to melancholic parts ala piano outro ‘Remembrance’. If it were up to me I would first put ‘Remembrance’ and then I would spit, but that’s just me. Anyway, it’s quite hard to pick a standout ‘cause most tracks are on this same level but my personal highlight would be ‘Suicide by My Side’ and ‘Me, Myself, My Enemy’ with a nice little bass intro that transforms into great rock-ish riff. And of course a whole list of mesmerizing solos throughout the whole album.

Bottom Line: Maybe there’s nothing too original here but great songwriting, first class musicianship and topnotch production doesn’t leave too much to complain about either. Any fan of melodic metal can definitely pick it up.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 9
Atmosphere: 7
Production: 9
Originality: 6
Overall: 8

Rating: 7.6 out of 10