SONIC SYDICATE. What have you become?

The “Rebellion EP” was something of a massive disappointment, but really? IT JUST KEEPS GETTING WORSE. When your long time harsh vocalist leaves the band because of his constantly deteriorating role, you know its time to rethink your direction. Unfortunately, that doesn’t stop SONIC SYNDICATE from releasing their fourth full-length release “We Rule The Night”.

Although by now its been more than apparent that this band has been moving towards a Pop friendly sound with each release, “We Rule The Night” is by far their most Poppy album yet. Leaning more towards a Melodic Hard Rock sound now more than ever, the Modern Metal element of the band is almost completely gone. With a few heavy guitar distortions and a very weak mix of the harsh vocals (no wonder he left) being the only things keeping this release even remotely Modern Metal, it’s about time that this reviewer just let this band go. Not even a shell of what they used to be, “We Rule The Night” is something that even the most open minded of Metalheads are going to scoff at.

Burdened with far too many ballads, FALL OUT BOY inspired clean vocals, and a lack of cohesion and sense of vision for the band, SONIC SYNDICATE is not only leaving Metal behind, but also anything unique. There are maybe two songs on this release that stick out from the rest (adding exclamation points to the end of song titles counts against them) and it’s only because of their synth work do those even stand out.

When a band starts to lose the Metalcore element of their music to focus on being less heavy, then you know something is starting to go wrong. SONIC SYNDICATE has decided rock bottom isn’t far enough and just keep digging. “We Rule The Night” is proof of this.  Sorry guys, but ruling the night seems to be the least of your worries.

(Online January 6, 2011)