Three years ago, Adrian Vandenberg surprised the rock world by reviving the band that carried his name and releasing ‘2020’, an album that was arguably his heaviest up until that point. Enough of a sleazy feel in the rhythms to call it hardrock, but the riffs are heavy enough to please the heavy metal crowd. Seemingly more confident with that particular style, ‘Sin’ ups the ante by having slightly heavier riffs and the mighty pipes of their new singer: rock and metal veteran Mats Levén. It also features the return of the only aspect ‘2020’ was missing: a surrealistic cover painting by Vandenberg himself.

Musically, ‘Sin’ isn’t miles away from the style of music Whitesnake played when Vandenberg toured massive arenas with them. Eighties hardrock and traditional heavy metal riffs galore, the chorus hooks are larger than life and the dark midtempo stomp of the title track even brings Whitesnake’s ‘Judgement Day’ to mind, at least until its moving chorus comes in. The lack of a keyboard player and productional gloss just makes ‘Sin’ hit a lot harder. Some of this stuff would not sound out of place on an eighties Dio album, while the speedier rockers have a sort of Van Halen-esque energy to them.

What also helps ‘Sin’ sound as good as it does must be a simple matter of confidence. ‘2020’ introduced Vandenberg as a viable twenty-first century band whose new work is at least as good as the material that put them on the map. Surely that gave them the confidence to come up with the Sabbath meets Zeppelin riffing of the likes of ‘Walking on Water’ and the awesome epic closer ‘Out of the Shadows’. Those songs are heavier than anything Vandenberg released prior and yet, it is not all that difficult to imagine them in the same set as ‘This is War’, ‘Wait’ or ‘Too Late’.

‘Sin’ is just as convincing when Vandenberg is treading more familiar waters though. Opener ‘Thunder and Lightning’ combines a nice and sleazy main riff with a structure reminiscent of the MoonKings song ‘Lust and Lies’. ‘Hit the Ground Running’ is built upon a nice riff that gallops along speedily, while ‘Light it Up’ ticks every eighties glam metal box without sounding the least bit dated. ‘House on Fire’ rubs up against hard rock clichés, but manages to subvert them before they get too familiar. It also has one of the best choruses on the album. The lack of pretension is one of the greatest strengths of the album’s songwriting.

Ultimately, the worst thing I can say about ‘Sin’ is that it does all the things that ‘2020’ did, only better. The songs are more memorable, there is just a big more swagger and energy, and Mats Levén is possibly the best singer in the world for this style of music. Not that Ronnie Romero was an amateur, but Levén’s power and grit sound far more natural. The most incredible thing about ‘Sin’ is how energetic the whole thing sounds though. Adrian Vandenberg will be seventy years old in a few months, but he sounds younger than he ever has here.

Recommended tracks: ‘Hit the Ground Running’, ‘Out of the Shadows’, ‘Sin’, ‘Thunder and Lightning’