Search - Helstar :: Sins of the Past

Days of Future Past

Justin Gaines | Northern Virginia | 07/15/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I never really understood why bands would go to the trouble of rerecording their old material for new collections. I guess it makes sense if the band has a change in vocalists. It's sometimes cool to hear the old songs by the new singer. But Helstar has always been focused on James Rivera, and he's still in the band. Apparently he thought that some of the old Helstar material needed to be dusted off and redone by his new bandmates, hence this new collection Sins of the Past.



To the band's credit, the songs sound a lot like they did when I saw Helstar live a few years ago. The musicianship is tight, and James Rivera still sounds pretty good, though he can't quite pull off some of the higher-pitched stuff.



I'd really like to see is a full scale remastering of the whole Helstar catalog, but Sins of the Past is an interesting enough collection. Between the two new songs (Tormentor and Caress of the Dead), which are actually pretty impressive, and the nearly one hour's worth of bonus multimedia content, the album has enough going for it that any serious Helstar fan will want to check it out.



PS - Is it just me, or does the album artwork look a lot like Possessed's Seven Churches album cover?

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