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Biografia : Evil Sinner

Evil Sinner came to life during the spring (May) of 1986. The founding members were guitarist Geert Heernaert and bassist Renaat Danckaert. Geert and Renaat had been in a band that had no name in 1984-85, together with a couple of other people. A rehearsal (including In The City, Eyes Of The Demon, Angels Of Rock) was sent around in those days, and the band continued until they lost their rehearsal space. Then Geert and Renaat hooked up with drummer Diego Denorme and started to rehearse at his place. The first official Evil Sinner line-up was rounded out with Carlo Roels (vocals) and Jan Maes (guitars).



This line-up also recorded a first demo in June 1987, a simple 4-track affair, entitled Merciless. It consisted of five speed/thrash tunes. The song Nuclear Power even managed to reach # 11 in the top 20 on Metal Top 20, a radio show from Olesnica in Poland, in March of 1988. Live experience was gained during the Madison Metal festival at the Cultureel Centrum in Lokeren on July 4th 1987, alongside ATTILA (Holland), EXPLORER, HELLFIRE and Holland's VENGEANCE. In November the band went to Brunssum in Holland (November 21st, with SEQUENCE, MENACY, CYCLONE and ALCOHOLICA) and on November 29th they played at 't Sas in Harelbeke, as opening band for KREATOR and VOI VOD.


During the first half of 1988 the first line-up changes occurred : Rolf V. replaced guitarist Jan Maes and drummer Diego was replaced by Jean-Luc Devos. With this new line-up a second demo was recorded in June of 1988, simply entitled Demo 2.


This particular line-up proved to be more or less solid and on January 28th 1989 Evil Sinner was back at Zuudhove in Koekelare, together with CROSSHEAD & XIPHOID. After that particular gig the band negotiated a recording contract with Pilum Records. As a result the quintet entered the Uptide Studio in Zelzate with producer Gus Roan to record their first official release, the Evil Sinner mLP, which was released both on vinyl and CD in the fall of 1989. Actually, the band had to pay for the studio themselves, all Pilum did was release the mLP/mCD. Lack of promotion and proper distribution resulted in the fact that the Evil Sinner release was hard to find. Royalties were never paid to the band either, not to mention that a second release (which was part of the contract, and was set for release in February 1990) via Pilum never saw the light of day.
Shortly after the release of the mLP another line-up change happened : mid October 1989 vocalist Carlo Roels was replaced by Ronny 'Koeke' Van Autreve. Due to already confirmed gigs to support the Evil Sinner release, Ronny only had a fortnight to learn all of the band's lyrics. His first performance fronting Evil Sinner was a support slot to Russia's KRUIZ, at the Scum club in Katwijk (Holland) on November 4th 1989. On November 8th Evil Sinner played support to fellow Belgians SIXTY NINE and U.S.A.'s EXCEL during the latter's The Joke's On You European tour at Zaal Martinus in Oordegem. Only to be followed by another show with EXCEL (plus UNUSUAL & SIXTY NINE) on November 11th, at the Parochiecentrum in Witgoor-Dessel. And another week later, November 18th, the band played a headline show at Geronimo in Rotterdam, Holland. During those shows the band displayed some new material as well, such as the instrumental Treblinka. Promises of a European tour with Arizona's SACRED REICH never materialized though, which was one of he absolute downers of the band's career.


Friday May 25th 1990 marked one of the highlights in the band's career, when they played support to Brazilians SEPULTURA at Zaal Unitas in Brunssem, Holland. SEPULTURA were on the verge of making their breakthrough with the release of Beneath The Remains, which resulted in a good crowd. And as far as Ronny remembers, the SEPULTURA members were extremely friendly and both bands had a great day.

In the mean time more line-up changes followed in the Evil Sinner camp in 1991 : drummer Jean-Luc and guitarist Rolf V. were replaced by Gino De Witte and Bruno Catry (ex THUNDERFORCE) respectively. Actually, one of the band's roadies, Johnny, filled in for Rolf V. for a while, but things simply didn't work out with him. This new quartet line-up (Geert, Renaat, Bruno, Gino) recorded another demo in 1991 : No Escape. Recorded at H.S. Recording Studio in Verviers, with André Gielen, of CHANNEL ZERO and ASPHYXIA fame, at the helm.


A couple more live gigs followed in 1992. On May 17th the band supported CHANNEL ZERO at the Vooruit in Gent, with ERODE TO GREED also on the bill. Drummer Gino still regards this particular show as one of the absolute highlights of his time in the band. After all, he had only joined the band less than a year earlier, and had only been jamming with a couple of friends in his garage prior to doing so. Regardless of the fact that Gino had already done a couple of gigs with Evil Sinner prior to this one, he was very much impressed to be playing in such a reputed place as Vooruit.
Evil Sinner's last show with this line-up was on July 11th 1992, at Zaal Myra (Parochiaal Centrum) in Rekkem. Shortly afterwards founding member Geert Heernaert decided to throw in the towel due to personal reasons.

The rest of the band (Renaat, Gino & Bruno) started to look for a new vocalist and guitarist, all to no avail. And thus it was decided not to carry on under the same moniker in the end. Especially since one of the founding members had left, and even more so since the band's music started to change as well. Instead they hooked up with former vocalist Ronny Van Autreve again and changed their name to INSUFFICIENT MEMORY.

In 2001 Evil Sinner got together once again, for two reunion gigs. One was as part of a benefit gig for TESTAMENT's Chuck Billy at the Racing in Gavere on September 22nd, together with the likes of DESTROYER 666, POLLUTED INHERITANCE, WICKED MYSTIC, INFERNAL LEGION, MINDLINK & ERODE TO GREED. The other date was due to popular demand of the old fans, and took place at the Prins Albert venue in Lauwe, on October 7th 2001. Evil Sinner's line-up on both those occasions was : Ronny 'Koeke' Van Autreve (vocals), Geert Heernaert (guitar & vocals), Renaat Danckaert (bass) & Gino De Witte (drums). As a result the band almost decided to reunite for good, but in the end it was not to be ...

Source : http://sites.google.com/site/evilsinnermetalband/