Hell yeah! Find me a more enjoyable album than Born to Sin in 2022 and you’ll be lying, for the fourth album by the Birmingham based outfit simply sparkles from the opening bars of “If You Get to Hell First” through to the triumphant finale of “Born to Sin”.
For those lacking in Fury knowledge, the band has been led by the brilliant Julian Jenkins for over a decade. They play a fabulous mixture of melodic heavy metal, laced with lashings of hard rock, power metal and even a soupcon of thrash at times. The output has been impressive, with three previous albums all building on the previous effort. 2020 saw the band’s third record The Grand Prize released mere days after the pandemic broke in the UK. Gutted by their luck, and prevented from touring their new album, Fury knuckled down and began crafting Born to Sin. With the addition of backing vocals of Nyah Ifill and Jade Marris, the former now an integral part of the band, Born to Sin has been a highly anticipated release with pre-sales doing very well.
The first thing you notice with Born to Sin is how damn fast it is. Drummer Tom Fenn tends to play fast during live shows, and he puts the pedal to the floor on the opening track “If You Get to Hell First”. Jenkins’ clear, melodious vocals are immediately on the back foot, but he copes majestically, becoming a verbal machine gun, firing out the lyrics whilst Becky Baldwin’s thunderous bass rampages along, locking in with Fenn and Jenkins rich rhythm guitar work to allow lead guitarist Jake Elwell to do what he does best, solo like a loon.
After such a rampant opening, one might have thought the band would ease up a little but no, we get the fist pumping “Nowhere to be Seen”, which although a little slower and less frantic doesn’t let up with the tempo. If there is one thing that Fury do better than most, it’s craft memorable anthems and the grinding “next in Line” is massive, with a hook that would catch the biggest whale!
Another exciting thing about Born to Sin is the variation within the song writing. Each song retains the general essence of Fury, fast-paced up-tempo tunes that linger in the memory for days. With the increase in backing vocals, the band have greatly expanded their melodies and harmonies. Just check out the sheer joy of “One Hell of a Night”, the deeper emotions of “Who Are You” or the old school rock n’ roll vibes of “Embrace the Demons” (which is going to have choreographed hand movements live – right?) Three songs with completely different sensations but all oh so good and yet different in feel.
It would be remise to ignore the absolute banger which is “It’s Rock N Roll”. Becky’s thundering Rickenbaker takes the lead on a track which has Motörhead written all over it and that isn’t a bad thing in anyway. Once more the pitch perfect harmonies add whilst the sheer power of it makes me pray that it’s on the set list come their tour in late March – it’ll be one to shake that head hard.
There is no filler whatsoever here. The album rocks comprehensively and finishes on an absolute high with the title track which also features some fine lead guitar from Matt Jones. The themes may be darker and the music more aggressive, but Fury have always stood for high quality well written compositions. And whilst they set the bar high on The Grand Prize there can be no doubt that this is their finest record yet. If you only buy one album in March, make it this one.
Born to Sin is out on March 18th
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