As requested, here’s the cult 1985’s “Gonna Raise Hell” EP from American metal act SINFUL, released for first time officially on CD by Heaven And Hell Records. This remastered reissue also features several bonus tracks including; a live in the studio recording, demos and a track amended from the original 1985 release, from the same recording sessions.
SINFUL was conceived in Hell’s Kitchen, NY in the late 1970s by high school friends guitarist Jimmy Ambrose and bassist Al Garay. The band started playing the New York club circuit, but failed to secure any record label interest and broke up. The members began to go into other projects one of which saw Ambrose joining Canadian Muscle rocker THOR.
After Ambrose’s stint with THOR, Ambrose reformed SINFUL this time with a new approach: the idea was to combine the heavy metal power and majesty of JUDAS PRIEST with the melody and ethereal harmony of ANGEL, with a touch of glam rock. For all their efforts, if this were not achieved, it certainly showed effort and a band that just might have been a little ahead of their time.
”Gonna Raise Hell” combines classic American metal & mid-Eighties hard rock, all with melody and the magic of that era.
After some gigs, SINFUL would head into the studio to lay down tracks for their 1984 demo. As the recording circulated throughout the local rock scene, eventually going abroad and catching the attention of Metal Forces’ Dave Reynolds and Kelv Hellrazer.
Hellrazer would help the band negotiate a deal with the small UK label Shades Records who would release the band’s debut EP “Gonna Raise Hell”.
One wonders if the infamous PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center) and the American Christian right moralists didn’t find albums like these a lot more threatening than any Ozzy, Slayer or Venom album you could think of.
How the hell are you gonna keep Hell a scary place to be, if it’s portrayed as a scene from “Saturday Night Fever” with guys in spandex and chubby tarts carrying plastic pitchforks??
Yeah, the cover is very fun now 2023, but colorful enough with the gold lettering and infernal lightshow to raise an eye or two in 1985.
Although it’s not an all-out, flawless 5-star record, musically many still rate SINFUL’s “Gonna Raise Hell” as one of the most underrated US Metal recordings.
A review in an old issue of Metal Forces gave the record a full 10-point rating and wrote something along the lines of “ANGEL meets METALLICA in a dark alley and the white hot ones come out on top”. Dunno about that comparison, seeing as it obviously lacks “historical perspective”, but the hype sure is well-deserved (even if the Shades Records / Metal Forces-connection also might have had something to do with it).
The first three songs kicks the respective asses of fellow metal Yanks bands from the time with much more ‘publicity’, with extra merits to the fantastic “Midnight Sun” – one of those perfect pieces of golden Epic Metal music that NO-ONE of the multitudes of fans of this genre should have to live without.
Then the guys show another side musically: “You Gotta Rock” is a LA-style metal rocker driven by a pretty sturdy lead-riff. And wiith “Teenage Overdose” SINFUL delivers a catchy melodic hard rocker / glammy metal fun tune.
Alongside the early 1984 demo, this reissue includes a ‘live into the studio’ set of unreleased songs written for a possible LP, very well recorded and a proof of how good these guys were performing together.
SINFUL deserved better luck, they not only show great potential here but they were ready for higher places: solid songwriting, a very good guitar player, a proper vocalist for the genre – with a strong manager and a proper producer, they could have been huge.
They used keyboards in a quite innovative way for this type of music in the US / 1985, incorporating them in the actual songs and riffing rather than sprinkling icky-sticky fluff on songs good enough without them.
There would be hints of a full-length to follow yet inevitably this would never happen. “Gonna Raise Hell” would get favorable reviews in European press such as in the pages of KERRANG but back in the States it failed to reach an audience, mostly due to poor promotion. This would lead to the eventual disbanding of SINFUL.
SINFUL was one of many, many bands across the rock ‘n roll landscape that became lost to time as popular trends would rapidly change throughout a decade that is often unjustly generalized.
Fans of mid-80s American Metal and Hard Rock will love this.
Highly Recommended
You’ve seen it first at anywhere
01 – Burn Your Eyes
02 – Wasted Youth
03 – Midnite Sun
04 – You Gotta Rock
05 – Teenage Overdose
BONUS TRACKS:
06 – Rich Bitch (original sessions outtake)
07 – Breaking Thru (Live in the Studio)
08 – Young And Reckless (Live in the Studio)
09 – Hit & Run Lover (Live in the Studio)
10 – Killer Instinct (Live in the Studio)
11 – Danger Zone (Live in the Studio)
12 – Jailbait (Live in the Studio)
13 – Danger Zone (Demo)
14 – Like A Hurricane (Demo)
Dana Albert – Vocals
Jimmy Ambrose – Guitars
Al Garay – Keyboards
Nars Lopez Bass (tracks 3, 4, 5, 6 & 14)
Nelson Onofre Drums (tracks 1-4, 6 -13)
Rick Schafer Drums (track 4 & 14)