Band:	Sin7sinS
Album:	Purgatory Princess
Style:	Gothic metal, Gothic rock
Release date:	November 24, 2014
A review by:	Susan

01. Heart Of Stitches
02. Stronger
03. Take Your Hands Off Me
04. Say What You Want
05. No Tears Left
06. Bittersweet Dreams
07. The Great Illusion Of Control
08. Jerusalem
09. Different Place Different Stage
10. Touch Of Pandora

If you adore the pop-symphonic genre and are hungry for some new blood then I'd recommend Sin7sinS. The music is fun, quite heavy, and the variety among tunes seems like it'll lead to some great replay value. If, and only if, you absolutely ADORE the pop side of the symphonic genre.

With words like "Princess" and "Sins" I think you know pretty well what to expect. Add the cover "art" and musicians' stage names and you could pretty well bet money on it. You'd be right; sort of. Yes, it's commercialized gothic/symphonic metal with childish lyrics and Minnie Mouse on vocals, but surprisingly the music is not so bad. I liked this album well enough on the first spin.

Unfortunately, it started to lose appeal very quickly. My first mistake was listening with headphones: I could no longer ignore the terrible lyrics. I couldn't just lose myself in the silly, guilty pleasure music any longer. I was yanked down a path of repetitive, juvenile poetry that would make even a 14 year-old cringe.

Some songs do have a nice throwback quality, retro rhythms and such, and the keyboard effects complement a few songs quite well. It's professionally mixed and produced thanks to Dan Swanö. Even Epica's Mark Jansen lends his voice to a few tracks. The lead singer has a very cool and interesting low range but spends about 90% of the time in a whiney, squeaky high range. Add her questionable English skills and this might be a turn-off for some.

The press release states this album, "contains [their] most heavy material to date" and thank god for that. The best thing about Purgatory Princess, and what makes it truly bearable, is the nice level of heaviness.

If you already love this genre and don't mind the more commercial offerings, definitely check this out. It moves along at a nice clip and several songs were pretty fun. It even has some "guilty pleasure" potential for the more tr00 fans of symphonic metal, though it will not in any way appeal to fans of other genres.