Sentenced

Story - A Recollection

(c)1997 Magic Arts Publishing

(p)1997 Century Media Records

Review by Neil St.Laurent

Thanks to Century Media for the CD

With the release of "Down" in 1996 Sentenced propelled themselves into the forefront of the scene. Patiently we must await the next release of Sentened; in the meantime Century Media provides us with this collection of songs from previous Sentenced releases, including "Down" (1996), "Amok" (1995), "Love & Death" (1995), "North From Here" (1993), "The Trooper" (1993), "Shadows Of The Past" (1991), and one previously unreleased track "No Tomorrow" (1996).

The album betters serves as a history lesson for current fans rather than an introduction to the band. The older material is somehow unlike that which is found on "Down". Whereas the new material is an entry into great harmonic and melodioc metal, the older material falls further into the realm of possibly doomdeath or black metal. "Down" has clean (or relatively clean) harmonic vocals, which are all but non-existant on their previous releases. It seems as though the inclusion of songs from "Down" on this CD is actually just to remind you of what they actually sound like now, as to not scare off potential new fans.

It is very interesting to hear the progression of Sentenced's atmospheric elements, although more subtle now, they are very predominant in their earlier releases. The transition seems to have gone from one where the atmosphere was just there for the purpose of atmosphere, to the modern inclusion where the atmosphere actually becomes part of the music to provide what could almost be considered the Sentenced style.

An important item that appears to always have been present is the work on guitars, there has always been, and still is, a solid rhythm companied with appropriate leads. While the newer material doesn't maintain the same level of darkness as before, it is still by no means happy or cheerful.

Other than the vocals, the real difference between "Amok" and "Down" is that of production -- whereas the production on "Down" was excellent, the production on "Amok", was, well, possibly acceptable...

In the end I am now a little disappointed with "Down", not because it wasn't an excellent album, but because it is so much more commercial than Sentenced's earlier material. Maybe some of the elements of the older Sentenced will make their way back into their new album -- the older music was simply more energetic. I guess in the end that this collection then is actually a great collection since it shows all sides of Sentenced, where they were from and how they progressed. But as I mentioned before it should be considered a history lesson for current fans rather than an introduction to the band.

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