When the "Sin Will Find You Out" album was originally released on vinyl via Roadrunner Records in 1986, the perception of the public was that of a rather appealing debut platter by another all-girl band in the tradition of The Runaways, Girlschool and Rock Goddess. Back in the 1980s, female hard rock/metal bands were the exception to the norm. Only much later it became evident that Original Sin (just as the Exorcist project before) was the brainchild of a certain David DeFeis, lead vocalist of Epic Metal masters Virgin Steele. Original Sin featured Danielle Draconis, David's sister, on vocals. David DeFeis gives us the whole story about Original Sin's rather mysterious "Sin Will Find You Out" album: "It was recorded and mixed in two days, a week after we recorded the Exorcist album. And just like we did with Exorcist, we rehearsed for a few short weeks and then went in and did it mostly live with a few overdubs. I recall that the Space Shuttle 'Challenger' had exploded while we were in the studio. I remember the news on the TV. I produced the album. Just like with the Exorcist album, the songs were written by myself and Edward, or by me alone. Those two albums enabled us to indulge in our early 'Thrash' side of Metal, have a bit of fun and explore the possibilities of various styles. All songs were written specifically for the Original Sin album, but Edward and I really liked some of them and decided to re-investigate them and re-record them with Virgin Steele later in. For example I re-wrote the track 'Conjuration Of The Watcher', adding that 'symphonic' middle section to it, and we recorded that for "The Book Of Burning" album that we did with Virgin Steele. We also recorded 'The Succubus' for "The Book Of Burning" album, and we used our version of 'The Curse' as a bonus track on the "Age Of Consent" re-issue, and 'To The Devil A Daugter' and 'Bitches From Hell' were both used as bonus tracks on the "Noble Savage" re-issue." According to David DeFeis, Original Sin was strictly a studio project: "Oh, it existed during those wonderful rehearsals and for those glorious two days in the studio... pure magick it was... but that was it. My sister Danae is singing on the album. She is still gloriously wailing away but she currently is not in a band. Maybe the release of this album will spark her ambitions to get back on stage and into the studio. The other players on the album are the same musicians that appeared on the Exorcist album. As I did on the Exorcist album, once again I played strange keyboards and did various demonic vocal bits and whatever film type atmospherics appear, and Edward played guitar. The new booklet gives detailed info about what went down. The songs for Original Sin were written during the same period that we were writing the Exorcist album's songs. For both of those albums we wanted to do something that was doomy and sometimes in the Thrash vein, and I specifically wanted to conjure up the images and the feelings that I get when thinking about or reading about the period of 1692 Salem... (the witch trials), or the era of the Inquisition... that moody darkness... the gloom... so the songs hopefully reflect that ambiance." The perception of the album back then in 1986 was quite good, if I remember correctly, there were only very few all-girl metal bands around at the time and Original Sin definitely stood out from the crowd musically. David DeFeis comments: "It was very underground and those who were in the 'know' back then enjoyed it, but it was pretty obscure. It didn't reach as many listeners as the Exorcist album did. It is really nice to be able to give it another shot, another chance at life. I think the songs were pretty cool, pretty interesting musically speaking, and it was a very nice accomplishment to be able to get those performances down in two days, and to capture that tremendous amount of energy that is found on there, so I would say the quality is pretty high. I think it's rather remarkable, and now with these re-mixed versions you can appreciate more of the details that the songs and the performances contain." This is how "Sin Will Find You Out" got that new lease on life according to David DeFeis: "I began collecting all the tapes and doing the transfers from analog to digital about a year ago, and this summer I started re-mixing the album, sorting out the bonus material and the remastering of the original mixes. It was a great pleasure for me to dive into it, and I am very pleased with the results... especially the new mixes. On the digi-pack CD, there are three versions of the album. The first is called the 'Eve' version and those are the original mixes re-mastered by a gentleman named Patrick Engel. The second version is called the 'Damaris' version and that one contains the original mixes (albeit from a different sound source), and also some of the original outtake mixes, all re-mastered by me. And the third version is called 'The Siren' version, and that contains all the various remixes and the bonus tracks that I prepared over this summer in my studio. I call this re-issue 'The Satan's Daughters Triple Deluxe Sinful Version'. Here's a fun fact: The band was originally supposed to be called... Satan's Daughters and that is why there is that strange thing that I wrote at the beginning of the album called 'The Devil Does Not Exist' and that weird bit I wrote that appears at the end of the album after the track 'Disease Bombs', called 'Satan's Daughters Outro'. The album's lyrics make much more sense when viewed that way. At the 11th hour the group's name was changed to Original Sin probably due to all the controversy that was going on at the time with the PMRC. If you remember the banning of albums and the parental warning labeling that started happening back then... I wasn't happy about the change... and I think those two tracks were sometimes either left off some pressings or if included not listed. Now the album can finally be enjoyed and perceived as it was originally intended." David DeFeis wrote all the lyrics to "Sin Will Find You Out" on his own. Was it difficult for him to get into that specific frame of mind (of a man writing lyrics for an all-female metal band)? "That's part of my job and I am always inspired and happy to do it," is what he says. "No, it wasn't difficult at all. I have been doing that sort of thing (writing with a female mindset) for years. There are female characters on Virgin Steele's "The House Of Atreus" album, for example the Queen Klytemnestra and her daughter Elektra, and also there is the character of the goddess Lilith on the "Visions Of Eden" and "The Black Light Bacchanalia" albums, and I had to get into their heads and write for them as well, and on those albums I also had to sing those roles. For me, it's really all about emotion and tapping into and relating to that emotion. I don't think that it makes much of a difference what gender one inhabits. Anger or love or hate or fear or joy or whatever emotion, registers the same in all human beings regardless..." Matthias Mader
