Unfortunately this CD didn’t quite survive the trip to Finland and arrived really badly scratched. As a result I was unable to listen to the first song of Masters Of Sin and some of the other songs suffered from severe skipping. Luckily, I was able to listen to most of it. Well then what are we dealing with here? Sarissa is a pretty unknown three piece from Greece that plays progressive metal. Masters Of Sin is a pretty laid back album, which has managed to avoid the pitfalls of so many other progressive metal releases. This album actually features songs instead of a whole lot of ideas thrown together into a mixture of chaos.

The production of this album could have been heavier, but despite being slightly too clinical, the sound is very good and all the instruments are mixed in perfectly. Singer Nick Iglezos does a fantastic job and has a whole lot of variety in his voice.

The guitar riffs are great and Sarissa has managed to keep them to a minimum. There are plenty of technical interludes but they never distract from the quality of the songs. Sarissa really manage to keep the listener’s attention unlike so many other progressive metal bands.

Masters Of Sin features great melodies that sound pretty original and although the keyboards are slightly too straightforward they are nevertheless very well done without becoming too dominant. This is simply a good album which I can highly advice to fans of this kind of metal. If you dislike progressive metal I doubt Sarissa will win you over but they have at least managed to impress me and I’m far from the average progressive metal fan; on the contrary.