The Sinner Snoozes Again - A Review of KK's Priest's The Sinner Rides Again

While Sermons of the Sinner was a simple but enjoyable heavy metal record with ten tracks and a running time of fifty-one minutes, KK's Priest's second output The Sinner Rides Again feels phoned in and must be considered a significant step down in terms of consistency and quality. The album title is already as boring as it gets and the childish cover artwork is quite stereotypical as well. This effort only offers nine songs and clocks in at just forty-one minutes.

The quality of the material offered here is only average at best. The melodic guitar play is the record's only redeeming quality but it rehashes past ideas time and again. The bass guitar play could be much more dominant and can only be described as serviceable. The drum play is decent but lacks playful elements and dynamic vibes. The vocals are technically satisfactory but sound quite by the numbers and lack variation. The generic production and the superficial lyrics complete an overall average impression that feels slightly disappointing when considering the charisma and experience of several members involved in this band.

Among the more decent tracks are single ''One More Shot at Glory'' that is quite catchy and dynamic as it should work very decently at concerts and festivals as well as title track ''The Sinner Rides Again'' with its beautiful melodies and concise songwriting. Other songs waste much potential such as the melodious ''Pledge Your Souls'' that ends on an unimaginative fade-out as well as album closer ''Wash Away Your Sins'' with its overlong introduction yet aborted ending.

At the end of the day, KK's Priest's sophomore output The Sinner Rides Again is only recommended to most faithful traditional heavy metal aficionados and uncompromising fans of band leader Kenneth Downing Junior. Everyone else can skip this record without any regrets as it gets attention by its history and name only. If you consider this lacklustre output a genuine highlight of the year, then you definitely need to listen to more contemporary heavy metal music to explore the sincere potential of this genre that is still alive and kicking after more than five decades.

Final Rating: 60%