Appice_SinisterCD

APPICE-Sinister

Steamhammer/SPV

Carmine Appice and Vinny Appice are two brothers that happen to play the same instrument. If you are into rock, metal, blues and melodic rock and you have not heard of these drummers or do not have any of the albums they participated on than your CD and vinyl collection is seriously lacking volume and class. Carmine has played with bands/artists like Vanilla Fudge, Cactus, Rod Stewart, Ozzy Osbourne, Pat Travers, King Kobra and Blue Murder but the list is much longer. Vinny has played with Axis, Black Sabbath, Dio, Heaven and Hell and more recently Resurrection Kings and Last In Line. But his list of achievements is a lot longer as well. It was a matter of time before these two decided to record something together and now they have done that in the form of the 13 track CD ‘Sinister’. It obviously was not a problem for the brothers with their reputation and contacts to gather some other musicians together to write some tunes and record the album. It is good to hear former Quiet Riot and Rough Cutt singer Paul Shortino again on the tracks ,,Suddenly’’ and ,,War Cry’’. He still has that powerful and slightly husky voice. Carmine’s former Blue Murder associate and bassist Tony Franklin is present on the Blue Murder cover ,,Riot’’ (sung by Robin McAuley) and several other tracks, guitarist Craig Goldy (Resurrection Kings and ex-Dio) helps out as well. The list is quite long with names like Joel Hoekstra, Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal, vocalist Jim Crean and bassist Phil Soussan (Last In Line). Produced by Vinnie and Carmine the record is basically a statement of what the brothers have been doing all their life. Playing solid metal and melodic heavy rock packed together in compact songs. No surprise that there is also a tribute to Black Sabbath with the track ,,Sabbath Mash’’ where you recognize all kind of short pieces of Sabbath songs mashed together and provided with some surprising orchestral arrangements. ,,Brothers In Drums’’ is a lyrical look back on the youth years of the boys, when Carmine is a role model for Vinny who also takes up drums and shows some talent. The lyric is written from Carmine’s point of view. The song is being sung by John Carridi, but if I did not know better I would have said that the one and only Gene Simmons was lending his voice to the project. As you might expect the sound of the CD is quite massive, Heaven and Hell/Sabbath like for most of the time. It might not be too original at times but there is nothing wrong with the way most of the songs are being executed by Vinny and Carmine plus their entourage. It is uncomplicated hard and heavy rock as pure as can be.

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