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This one came as a bit of a surprise. Italy isn't exactly a hotbed for traditional metal, let alone one deeply rooted in late 70s/early 80s metal/hard rock with noticeable NWOBHM influences. The songs here are all good catchy rockers, with guitar work that at times reminds me of early Iron Maiden and sometimes a more melodic NWOBHM style. The vocals are pretty good overall; again I must make the NWOBHM reference as I have some obscure releases from the late 70s with a very similar vocal style - kind of a charming "garage band" style that was very common amongst the lesser-known bands in that period. The keyboards are kind of hit and miss. In general they're used very tastefully, they even have this little 70s sound that was very popular with some classic rock and hard rock bands in the early 70s. There's a couple of instances where they could have either dropped the keyboards or pushed them farther in the background, as they sound a bit out of place. This is very minor, however, on what is otherwise a very good release.

"Don't Challenge the Holy Sinner!" (quite a mouthful) is a non-pretentious release. Nothing here that you haven't heard in one form or the other if you're familiar with early traditional metal, but Holy Sinner have managed to marry a few influences and come up with a collection of very catchy, well crafted songs. You'll find not only the music but also some vocal lines will get stuck in your head in no time. Some label please wake up and sign these guys already. Oops… Gotta go now, "Sleeping #1" is playing and I've got to air guitar to the soloing on that one. :)