Metal music has changed and mutated into very various shapes and forms within the past decade. With many new titles, divisions and fans it's hard to put your finger on just what 'metal' is these days. [Bands like Korn, Tool and NIN changed the metal scope by playing around with pro-tools and adding all types of electronica and other industrial sounds to their music while acts like Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach and P.O.D. found their niche in metal by adding hard-edged rap lyrics and deejay scratching to their music, not to mention the rage filled combination of death metal/rapcore/electronica & standard metal sound of bands like Mudvayne, Slipknot and Soulfly.] All these different mutations of metal had run their course and kind of gone stale. Some are hanging on thanks to rock radio and of course the ever so destructive MTV, but the truth is that real metalers are sick of the overplayed and over hyped nu-metal and are thirsty for something real.. That's Where Brand New Sin comes along.

Brand New Sin, 6 big rough necks from Syracuse, NY are bringing back guitar fueled rock and roll and stripping metal down to it's basics. There is no rapping, no deejays, no dubbing, and no sampling- this is just straight-up garage metal at it's absolute finest. "We just sat back and looked at the state of music and we saw that there is this big void right now in-between the nu-metal and the rap metal and we were like, 'where's the rock and roll? Where's the hard rock?'" says Brand New Sin vocalist, Joe Altier. "We're hoping to creep up in the middle of all of this and give people some rock and roll again. Hopefully we lead a resurgence and get a bunch of other bands behind us and make some of the other crap that's out there disappear."

In the nature of Black Sabbath, Down, Zakk Wylde and C.O.C. Brand New Sin carry that sludgy, tough metal vibe complete with raw blusey vocals and powerful guitar solo's that have been M.I.A. for too long. "People love the guitar solo's, man. I'm not knocking the other bands, but we're actually playing the guitar, we're not using it as a sampler or a noise box and people miss that." Says the 28 year-old singer, "Whatever we can do on the album we can do live. A lot of bands have like one guitar player, or even 2 guitar players and they layer a lot of different stuff in the studio and on the album it all sounds great. But, when you see them live it sounds very thinned out and not as big. What we do on the album we can give to you live and it sounds just as good and sometimes even better."

Jamming out with 3 guitarists [Slider; Kris Wiechmann; Ken Dunham] gives them the that "wall of sound" on stage that really makes a huge difference and separates them from nearly any other band in their genre. "It's really fun to have 3 guitar player in the band," says Altier, "We've been blessed to actually have 3 guys that actually love playing with each other and they all compliment each other in every way shape and form. They have those great 3-part harmonies and double solo's with a rhythm guitar player down the middle. All 3 of them play solo's throughout the album, so it's not like I particular guy handling all the solo's.. Look, any of these guys could be the lead guitarist in any band"

Their self-entitled debut off Now Or Never Records is full of hard-stomping, shit-kicking metal. Offering a diverse pallet of sounds from blues/rock/metal/speed metal and standard these guys surely give it all and for metal fans young and old and it's been a long time coming. "People our age [25-30] and people a little bit older than us get it because they grew up on this kind of stuff," Says Altier, who joined the band in September, 2001 just before they were signed in October, "But, we're not targeting any one age group. We can go from the young kids and teenagers all the way up to the older guys who grew up on Sabbath as well as everyone in-between. I think that one of our strong points is that we can cross a lot of age barriers and some bands are just not able to do that."

Tunes like "The Oath;" "Did You" and "My World" really take you right into the mind frame of real-deal heavy metal. Wailing guitars; hard stomping beats, thumping bass lines and powerful graspy vocals really get the adrenaline speeding through the veins and heads banging through the sheet rock. "We're very happy with what we did on this album and we're looking forward to having a career. The next time around we want to have some more time to really broaden. All of us are excited about this whole thing, not just this album, but as a career together. Like I said before, we're hoping to lead a resurgence and get some other bands behind us and bring back this style of rock."

Perhaps Brand New Sin will lead the revolution and bring back old school metal and perhaps it will inspire a new legion of young bands to come forth and jam like back in the day. But, lets not forget the Godsmacks, Metallica's, Slayer's, Monster Magnet's Pantera's and Spirit Caravan's who have been keeping it real through the years as well. One thing's for sure, Old school is becoming new again and that should put a missing tooth smile on head-bangers everywhere.

For more on Brand New Sin check out www.brandnewsin.com

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