Classic Korean Pop Music Archive: Sinawe / Heavy Metal Sinawe (1986)

Sinawe 시나위
Heavy Metal Sinawe
1986. 03. 01

Side A
1. 크게 라디오를 켜고 / Turn on the Radio Aloud
2. 그대 앞에 난 촛불이여라 / I Would Be a Candle in Front of You
3. 남사당패 / Namsadang
4. 젊음의 록큰롤 / Rock'n Roll of outh
5. 아! 대한민국 / Ah! The Republic of Korea

Side B
1. 잃어버린 환상 / Lost Dream
2. 아틸란티스의 꿈 / Dream of Atlantis

3. 1월 (January) / January
4. 하루해 마냥 떠가고 / Sun Goes Down All the Way

Some might have heard of Sinawe before, as it is a form of traditional Korean music based on improvisation. Indeed, the leader of Sinawe, Shin Dae-cheol said that he came up with the band name from his music textbook when he was in middle school. Regarding that there is a lot of similarities between metal music and the traditional Korean music, this name probably explains their music style very well.

Actually, we have talked about the albums related to Sinawe a few times before. The second album that we introduced was the first debut album of Add 4, which was lead by the "godfather" of the Korean rock music, Shin Jung-hyeon here. Also, we have mentioned his another legendary album, Shin Jung-hyeon & Yeopjeons 1st Album here. Probably, Shin Jung-hyeon is the most closest person to Sinawe, and that's because he is in fact, the father of Shin Dae-cheol, who is the leader of Sinawe. Not only that, in the review for Seo Taiji's first debut album here, we actually mentioned that Seo Taiji was the former bassist of Sinawe but soon quit and founded the group Seo Taiji and Boys.

In fact, hard rock genre was not the odd one in late 1980s, as various hard rock bands were active in 80s such as Song Gol Mae, which is another important figure in the Korean pop music history that we are going to talk about later. That's why this album wouldn't be called the first heavy metal album in Korea. However, nobody would argue about the fact that this album became the milestone of heavy metal genre in Korea, blooming metal boom in late 80s. As the phrase "heavy metal" is shown on their first album cover, Sinawe introduced themselves as "heavy metal" band showing that they are going to be renowned as "heavy metal band".

The songs featured in this album, despite that they were recorded in poor quality, show that they deserve their fame as a heavy metal band. Especially, the unique vocal sound of Yim Jae-beom and the alternative solo of Shin Dae-cheol make this album especially distinctive. That's why this album is regarded as one of the best heavy metal albums in Korea with the album Too Fast! Too Loud! Too Heavy! from Baekdusan, which is the band we are going to talk about later again.