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Sentenced: Shadows of the past
21/05/09 || cadenz
Sentenced’s debut album was released during the golden years of Scandinavian death metal, and that’s exactly what this record contains – Scandinavian death metal. Over the next 15 years the booze-loving Finns went on to evolve into a radio-friendly and melodic heavy metal/rock band, and since 1996’s “Down” they were one of Finland’s most successful bands both at home and abroad, right until their demise in 2005. I’ve got nothing against their later releases, I like f ex “The cold white light” a lot; but on “Shadows of the past” they were quite fucken badass in comparison.
The opener “When the Moment of Death Arrives” starts out with a melody that reminds me of Dissection and other Swedish death/black bands of the 90’s. Slightly folkish melodies of this kind (though more Sentencesque) pop up every now and then during the course of the record, and give you some kind of evidence that it is, in fact, the same band that made “Killing Me, Killing You”…which is probably in the all-time top 10 of Most Emo Song Titles. Pretty far off from the pure and stale right-on death titles like “Rot to Dead” or “Under the Suffer” found on this disc. Though the melody leads and the occasional well-executed Kirk Hammett-style solo add a nice spice to the mix, the foundation of this record lies in chunky, groovy mid-tempo death metal riffs in the vein of old Entombed, Grave or even Obituary. There’s practically no faster paced material at all, which makes the listening experience somewhat monotonous as there aren’t that many contrasts. I’m not saying every death metal LP should range from doom to grind, just that the tempo on this one gets a tad over-used. Almost all riffs are also written in the same key which dulls the mind like ten seconds watching the GOD Channel. OK, not quite.
Despite that, there’s some interesting song writing on this disc, with some progressive elements that are sadly gone for the most part in most of the groovier kind of death metal today. There are some great and unorthodox solutions for the drumming with nice beats that remind a little of Nicke Andersson’s way of adapting his playing to the guitar riffs and not just slavishly playing some beat that he already knew. Drummers, please take this to mind. Or fucken die. Another interesting thing on this particular CD is the vocalist. This is the only album on which we can hear lead guitarist Miika Tenkula (R.I.P.) growling, and I have to say he sounds pretty fucken amazing. You can almost smell the grime of his bowels as he’s eradicating them with every plagued syllable, not too distant from the vocal style of Klas Morberg (Desultory) but with a taste of Johnny from Unleashed.
The production is quite good, though the guitars could’ve used a bit more punch. The lack of brickwalling makes the album sound more organic and gives it that nice old-school feel as well. Back in the day the songs were also written to be recorded with this kind of production; had these songs been recorded today with maxed out decibel levels all the way through, I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed them as much. All in all this is a solid death metal record from the old days of yore. If you’re into any of the bands mentioned in the review, check this out. It’s not pure awesomeness, but it’s a good album with nice efforts from the whole line-up – though the guitars sound a bit out of tune…you could call that charming, though. Right?
I would not recommend this to a prototype fan of Sentenced’s later material, at least not without a warning: May contain death metal that makes you wanna kill your emo self. On the other hand, that could come across as a promise…
7 melodic meat grooves out of 10.
- Information
- Released: 1991
- Label: Thrash Records
- Website: www.sentenced.org
- Band
- Miika Tenkula: vocals, guitars
- Sami Lopakka: guitars
- Taneli Jarva: bass
- Vesa Ranta: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. When the Moment of Death Arrives
- 02. Rot to Dead
- 03. Disengagement
- 04. Rotting Ways to Misery
- 05. The Truth
- 06. Suffocated Beginning of Life
- 07. Beyond the Distant Valleys
- 08. Under the Suffer
- 09. Descending Curtain of Death (bonus track)
