SINERGY - To Hell And Back
June 15, 2000, 24 years ago
(Nuclear Blast)
Though Kimberly Goss is the frontwoman and visual raison d'etre, it's becoming apparent that Sinergy's main function in life is to serve as a hard rock playground for guitar wunderkind Alexi Laiho to goof around in ?kicking out Dokken (the kickass 'Lead Us To War') and Helloween ('Midnight Madness'), riffs too bubble-gummy even for the carnival cacophony of his main band, Children of Bodom. Not that there's anything wrong with that; it's neat to hear the man filtering headbanging power metal through blackened influence to create this uniquely thrashable brew. As for Goss, she's got a decent voice for this stuff, but she's mired in awkward phrasing and cornball lyrics (ballad 'Laid To Rest' being especially cringe-worthy). One gets the feeling that Sinergy's success is despite her, not because of her ?though with the scads of classy riffs and the infectious energy found within To Hell And Back, it's easy to forgive the occasional clinker.
