Sin Offering "Charnel House"

    When I first came across this four song EP via a Youtube channel that I am subscribed to called, No Deal, I was extremely interested to hear what this band sounded like given the very grim looking album cover. The band’s name, Sin Offering, is very appropriate given this band’s utterly haunting post-punk sound that instantly hooks you right away and covers you in this funeral veil of mesmerizing darkness. 

    Titled, “Charnel House,” this EP by Sin Offering is something that I can see appealing to a wide range of music fans. The band’s sound takes certain elements from gothic rock and post-punk bands like Christian Death, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Bauhaus, as well as other acts that have this unique ability of creating macabre themed music while also coming up with very catchy sounding arrangements. The singer in Sin Offering has an unfathomably captivating voice that perfectly compliments the music and reminded me a bit of Debora Iyall the singer from the post-punk/new wave band Romeo Void. During some of the songs on this EP you feel as though the singer’s voice is leading you through this hazy maze as you become lost in the morbid blissfulness created by the other instruments. 

    Another area on this EP that vividly stands out and adds to the band’s profoundly haunting sound is the guitar playing. The guitarist may not be some shredding virtuoso, but they sure as hell know how to come up with some down right catchy chord progressions. Plus, I really like their guitar tone and how they went about utilizing different guitar effects throughout the release to give the music a very dynamic sound. The opening song, “Pleasure Garden,” starts out with these ghastly muffled noises, but once the drums kick in and offer up a solid straightforward heart pounding post-punk like rhythm, you quickly become possessed by the sonic rush of dark hallucinogenic distortion. On the second track, “Bell Glass Mortuary,” I really liked the primitive sounding opening riff along with the singer’s vocal delivery. Some lyrics that caught my attention were, “Pale roses, silver scalpel, Heart-shaped locket, tooth and hair,” which again creates this ghastly romantic tale that the singer is able emphasize with such raw emotion behind every word. 

    “Gilt Hotel” and “Velvet Ossuary,” are a couple killer tracks as well featuring more addictive sounding guitar parts and macabre lyrics delivered in an enchanting manner. Some of the guitar melodies like on, “Gilt Hotel,” are really brilliant sounding, because even though they are not overly complex in terms of technicality, they have this ability to demand your attention as the notes feverishly ring out over the deafening drum noises. The bass part at the ending of, “Velvet Ossuary,” was another very creative idea and did a great job wrapping up the release by creating this ghastly atmosphere where the solemn bass riff sends you off into the pitch black void. 

    From the start of the EP to the harmoniously eerie end, “Charnel House,” is an EP that I highly recommend listening to if you are a fan of horrifyingly catchy post-punk and gothic themed rock music. The band is able to convey an amazing amount of raw and hypnotic energy, while achieving an unbelievably tight overall sound. To me this album’s haunting production and recording quality, as well as the phenomenal gothic lyrics, makes this an atypical listening that is highly needed in our world right now. Society has really been inundated with such cheap sounding overproduced garbage that when you come across a band like Sin Offering, you are completely blown away and hope to hear from them in the future. 

Check out the full EP below (Also, subscribe to No Deal's Youtube Channel! Tons of killer punk and underground releases worth checking out!) : 

Bandcamp link to the EP: 

https://soundgrotesca.bandcamp.com/album/charnel-house