Sorceress of Sin - 'Constantine'

Lisa Skinner’s astonishing vocals kick you right between the ears again and she’s a real trump card for the band, belting it out with power and hitting some operatic heights, as in the full-on lead single “Massacre of Meridian”. It is a ferocious but infectious ear-worm that has been lodged in my brain all week, although sadly the voices in my head keep singing ‘massacre of Marillion’ and that’s not right!

Lisa gets to show a bit of theatricality on “Pathogenic Parasite” and the nine-minute “Until the Dawn”. She even adds some spoken word in “Erratica” and an almost punky vocal on “Adira”. She’s a real star and forms half of a husband-and-wife partnership with rock solid drummer, Paul Skinner.

There’s a bit of an underworld theme going on and some fantastical story-telling. One of the musical driving forces behind the band is clearly Greek-transplant Constantine Kanakis on guitar and his influence extends way beyond the title of the album. There is great narrative and shape to the epic tunes and they’re definitely embellished by some exceptional power-widdling but always within the context of the song.

The title track closes the album and verges on prog-metal over the course of nearly 12 minutes. It appears to pull the narrative all together and references each of the other songs in a great finale.

The band recently played Bloodstock and they drafted in John Turner as an additional guitarist to help them present some of their quite complex material live. With two albums worth of songs, they’ve got all they need for a killer set now, so here’s hoping that the rest of us get a chance to hear it soon.