UMUR "Sin Will Find You Out" is the debut full-length studio album by US speed metal act Original Sin. The album was released through Cobra Records in 1986. The history of the band is quite interesting, as Original Sin was promoted as an all-female speed metal act (which was quite unusual for the time) and photos of the band showed an all-female band, but in reality it´s only lead vocalist Danielle Draconis (real name: Danae DeFeis and sister of Virgin Steele vocalist David DeFeis) who is of the female sex. The remaining band members (all working under female pseudonyms) are all males. Some of them normally working with DeFeis brother in Virgin Steele, but all three of them also recorded the 1986 Exorcist album "Nightmare Theatre" with David DeFeis. The latter also acts as producer on "Sin Will Find You Out" which completes the circle.

If you´re familiar with the "Nightmare Theatre" album from Exorcist, the music style on "Sin Will Find You Out" won´t come as a huge surprise, as the two albums are very similar in terms of the instrumentation and overall speed metal music style. The difference is of course that Draconis provides the music on "Sin Will Find You Out" with a female touch, which the slightly more raw "Nightmare Theatre" didn´t have. Draconis is a relatively raw and staccato delivering speed metal vocalist though, so don´t expect angelic lead vocals here.

"Sin Will Find You Out" features a raw, organic, and well sounding production job, which suits the rawness of the material well. I´d describe it more or less as the sister album to "Nightmare Theatre" and I rate them both pretty equally in terms of quality and listening satisfaction. A good quality release and a 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.

adg211288 Obscure, Forgotten and Otherwise Hard to Find Metal Albums #1

Okay, this review is going to start off a bit different for me, as this is the first of what I hope to be many in a series of reviews for some of the more obscure, forgotten or otherwise hard to find (being available online no matter the legality of the download doesn't count) metal releases that I've found over the years. So with the preamble out of the way, let's begin.

Original Sin existed for a very brief time in the mid eighties. They released just this one album, entitled Sin Will Find You Out (1986) and were never heard from again. Adorning the cover artwork is a girl in the stages of putting on or taking off her bra. In a musical context this screams one thing: glam metal. Only Original Sin wasn't a glam metal act, but a full-on speed metal act, proving that a record should never be judged by its cover. This is a notion that could also be applied to the band themselves, as officially Original Sin were an all female band.

Except they weren't.

You see, the truth behind Original Sin was that they were a fabricated band much like the perhaps better known Exorcist, who were basically the band Virgin Steele in disguise, though the drummer was from a different outfit. Original Sin is actually basically the same band once again, but they've swapped David DeFeis (who sits in the producer's chair) for his sister Danae DeFeis (here using the pseudonym Danielle Draconis), who was the only actual female member of the band. The rest of the band were blokes using female names. Notably this includes Edward Pursino, who is still in Virgin Steele to this day. He went by the name Cynthia Taylor here though!

Why did they do this? Your guess is as good as mine. But despite the unusual history of Original Sin, their music was largely simplistic straight up speed metal. Sometimes though that is all you need. Sin Will Find You Out is surprisingly kickarse. I was honestly half-expecting some kind of spoof act. I'm instead reminded somewhat of the much more recent act Demona, but I find that this album sounds quite a lot stronger on all fronts. For the time period it's perhaps a bit typical sounding, but a fine example of eighties speed metal nonetheless. Danielle's vocals fit the music well. Her vocals are styled around the genre the band are playing so are quite different to the popular female vocalists of today's metal scene, but are not excessively rough either. I must admit, as a whole, Original Sin sounds a lot more in your face and direct than I ever recall Virgin Steele being.

This is quite a short album with just eight proper songs and a couple of tracks for a guitar solo piece and a bass solo piece, for a total time of just over the 33 minute mark. That's quite short by today's standards but I think an ideal length for an album like this. It's direct, never let's up the pace, and ultimately gets the job done. There are a couple of weird bits right at the start and very end of the album that I'm still not too sure what to make of, but everything in between is speed metal done right. I'm going to go with 4.5 stars for this.