Review by Alexi on May 6, 2005.

King + Fredrick = Kinrick

[sarcasm]Holy shit, what an brilliant band name![/sarcasm]

Does Kinrick deliver groundbreaking, original material on Sense Your Darkness? The cleverness of the bands’ name (ed.: and album title!) speaks for the quality of their music. Even the most easily influenced aficionados of heavy metal would label Sense Your Darkness as poor.

Hailing from Atlanta, GA. Kinrick consists of former Firewind vocalist, Stephen Fredrick and Vainglory axeman, Corbin King. Rounding out the lineup are bassist James Martin and drummer Stian Krsitoffersen.

The album emphasizes and is structured around the guitar. King writes three or four commendable riffs throughout the course of the first five songs, as exemplified in “Call of Honor,” the dramatic opener. However, the sparse originality of the first half of the album disappears for the final seven tracks. With no commendable leads and a few tasty riffs to his credit, King could have been replaced with a session musician to achieve a similar result.

The other aspect of the music which eats away at your nerves about one-third of the way through the record are the vocals. With all due respect to Fredrick, his vocal range is not suited for this music at all. He was somewhat successful in Firewind, however, that does not mean he can automatically assert himself into a role for which he is clearly inappropriate. If I could go back and change one thing on this record, I would have found a vocalist who could sing some falsettos, rather than one who half-assed screams lines of cheesy heavy metal lyrics, reminiscent of a constipated 40-year-old in the midst of a mid life crisis.

If you are a promoter, label executive or band member, you know you are in deep shit when the two selling points of the album lose their potency after four songs. It’s safe to say that the people at Leviathan Records made a poor investment in a band which is so uncreative that they couldn’t even think of a good band name, let alone put forth a valiant, creative effort. If you want to waste some money, go for it. I challenge you to buy this record and have a more enjoyable listening experience than when you bought St. Anger by Metallica.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 3
Atmosphere: 4
Production: 4
Originality: 2
Overall: 4

Rating: 3.4 out of 10

Review by Adam M on April 18, 2018.

Howling Sycamore perform a jazzy progressive metal form of the metal genre that is quite interesting to behold. Right from the start of this recording we’re treated to an interesting flair with the use of horns. The early moments of the album are heavy and combine nicely with the horns for maximal impact.

It would be somewhat appropriate to compare this band to Nevermore even though they don’t use any horns in their recording. There is the same dark flavor to these tracks that would inhabit the best of Nevermore’s recordings. The style is still fairly unique because not many metal bands have performed it in this way. The album has to be impactful because it doesn’t last very long when the instrumental tracks have been taken into account. Even with a short running length, there is still some of the most interesting music of the year performed by this act. One can sense their goodness even from the line up alone which contains Hannes Grossman from Obscura and Alkaloid fame. The line up makes for a very complex grouping that can perform these frequently technical songs at the blink of an eye. The music here represents a progressive metal opus that has traditional trappings running through it. The vocals nicely match up with the music as they are high pitched and similar to Warrel Dane at times. They match the dark style of the music perfectly.

This band is somewhat strange sounding, yet able to maintain a normal enough sound to be quite impactful. Could the music be improved upon? Yes, there could be even more interesting passages interwoven into a longer running time, but this is mere speculation for the future of the band. They are still pushing boundaries and able to craft one of the more memorable experiences of the year so far. Fans of Nevermore and progressive metal with traditional tendencies will find something to like here.

Rating: 7.9 out of 10