I certainly haven’t come across too many female fronted metal bands from Chile, so I’m happy to have Sacramento as an outstanding representative from that country in my music library. They’ve been working very diligently in their few years together, and now they’ve released this exceptional full length album. Choosing to stray from the speed / death metal styles all too common these days, Sacramento have gone instead with a progressive, hard rock sound with melodic vocals and they are very good at it.

Weight Of Sin is not an out of control freight train rushing by at full bore. It’s much more sophisticated, but at the same time delivering plenty of heavy guitars and pounding drums. Alejandro Espinosa is an excellent composer and guitarist, and his very creative guitar riffs make many of the songs brim with excitement. There is no shredding, just very tasteful guitar solos that really suit the songs. The drums pack a nice punch and the bass lines actually come through quite well too. The lyrics are written by both singer Laura Vargas and Alejandro, and they tend to be dark in nature. Laura’s vocal melodies have a somewhat melancholic quality, and she sings them with a strength and clarity that really drives the song’s feeling home.

One of my favorite cuts on the album is “Forgotten Time”. The guitar parts are just fabulous throughout the entire song, and I really like the vocal melodies as well. “Everything To Waste” is one of the heavier songs and it has a killer guitar intro that is used with the refrain as well. “All Betrayals” could have been a pretty good track, but it is marred by some clean male vocal sections that just don’t seem to work and feel out of place in the song. “Purple” is a slower but still fairly heavy song, with a lot of dynamics and some nice little twists and turns. Laura sings a powerful “Are You There?” just before Alejandro breaks into a gorgeous guitar solo.

There are plenty of great tracks on this album. The production quality is great and everything comes through crisp and clear. I can’t imagine anyone not enjoying this album, it just plain rocks!

Websites:
http://www.sacramentomusic.net
http://www.myspace.com/sacramentocl
http://www.facebook.com/Sacramentocl

  © John Davies 2011