Sentenced - Down review
| Band: | Sentenced |
| Album: | Down |
| Style: | Depressive heavy metal, Suomi metal |
| Release date: | 1996 |
| Guest review by: | addiction |
01. Intro - The Gate
02. Noose
03. Shadegrown
04. Bleed
05. Keep My Grave Open
06. Crumbling Down (Give Up Hope)
07. Sun Won't Shine
08. Ode To The End
09. 0132
10. Warrior Of Life (Reaper Reedemer)
11. I'll Throw The First Rock
12. No Tomorrow [re-issue 2007 bonus]
What can anyone say about Sentenced? They have left their mark in the metal scene and it will stay there for generations to come. They are quite an underrated band, which should have a different level status. Even so, many people love them and they are very much missed, even almost 3 years after they left us, after their funeral.
This album is the first that features Ville Laihiala on vocals and Tenkula also on bass, since they did not have a bass player at the time of the recording. Their sound started changing from "Amok", but this is the release that started their signature Suomi metal. Ville's voice made a huge difference in their sound, although in this album he doesn't sing with such a deep voice as he did mostly in "The Cold White Light", but rather with a more rough voice. Apart from the vocals, the thing that stands out the most, as with all their releases, is the guitars. The melodies that Tenkula and Lopakka create are really melodic, cool and infectious! The guitarwork, creating those magnificent melodies, is also the reason why they were quite unique as well. The lyrics are depressive as always, but nevertheless with some hope in them somehow.
Even though this album is the first with Laihiala, and the first after their musical turn, this is one of their best releases and has some very memorable songs on it. It does not reach the levels of beauty that "The Cold White Light" reaches, but it could as well be one of their top three albums. The album is full of good songs and none stand out that much more than the rest. A lot of these songs grab your attention and make you want to sing along. The riffs are as cool as ever and the album even reaches epic proportions at times. One song that is a bit different is "Crumbling Down (Give Up Hope)", which features female vocals (chanting is more like it), which gives a certain gothic feeling. Another song that deserves special mention is "I'll Throw The First Rock", the best song of the album because of its main riff, which starts at 0:55 in the song, and is one of the best metal riffs of all time if you ask me! This riff alone is worth buying the album and gives me goosebumps every single time!
To finish off, this is a very good album, recommended to whoever likes melodic metal or actually metal in general. There are no bad songs here and it will make you miss Sentenced for sure. The sound is a little bit raw and unrefined compared to their later work, which makes it feel a little bit old school, but generally speaking it is a beautiful album!
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 10 |
| Originality: | 10 |
| Production: | 8 |
Written by addiction | 14.06.2008
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
Comments
| Beautiful War Account deleted |
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| DoomedTillDeath Posts: 3  |
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| Asmara Posts: 11  |
My first feeling was: " It's not bad, but there are better ones." Most of the time I agree with the review...but I still don't understand why this is called Suomi Metal !! ... ...doesn't make sense to me. O_o
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| addiction Posts: 277  |
Written by Asmara on 05.04.2009 at 23:56 first of all your first feeling was kind of right, although i would say it is good, but there are definitely better ones. and as for the suomi metal characterisation, well its kinda hard to explain i guess but its the feeling of the music. it is melancholic with a lot of melody and its usually finnish bands that have this unique sound, therefore it got the name suomi...which to be fair is not universally accepted i guess, but it is a good way to characterise the sound. also all these suomi metal bands more or less owe their sound to sentenced. hopefully this helped you a little bit. if not, just keep listening to similar bands and you will get the difference on your own. 
---- alive in the superunknown
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| Deadmeat Necrobutcher Posts: 2437  |
A good album from sentenced. a very big change from the band. but they have done it even better..
---- Υou've sold your human essence to the cold world of dead and empty things... You're SOLD!
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| Asmara Posts: 11 |
Written by addiction on 08.04.2009 at 00:23
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| Sentenced Odiin gothic.moorion@gmail.com Posts: 260  |
Down was my first Sentenced album what I have heard, but it entraped my soul...I have listened the whole discography and years later I claimed that Down is the best of all. Noose, Bleed and, my personal favourite, Sun Won't Shine are one of the best track of Sentenced. All my sorrows for the disbanding...RIP
---- Life has given me much, maybe taken more...
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| Sentenced Odiin gothic.moorion@gmail.com Posts: 260 |
Written by Skøllgrim on 13.07.2009 at 02:34 I dont think so that Sentenced or even Poisonblack is gothic metal...metalstorm's genre, soumi metal is incorrect, but the depressive heavy metal is exactly the best way to call these 2 bands.
---- Life has given me much, maybe taken more...
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| Sentenced Odiin gothic.moorion@gmail.com Posts: 260 |
Yeah, I mean, that depressive heavy metal is connected to the lyrics of course, but moreover the so called heavy metal genre got this melancholic/dark (exatly in Down) influence...I think this style is between heavy metal and gothic metal, but I prefer to call it in this way, cus the whole Sentenced image, appearance and presentation is far from the gothic, I think  Btw, do you or one of your acquaintance have some old Sentenced shirt, that is does not need anymore, cus I looking forward very much to get some old stuff...?
---- Life has given me much, maybe taken more...
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| Sentenced Odiin gothic.moorion@gmail.com Posts: 260 |
Written by Skøllgrim on 25.07.2009 at 20:05 Yeah, I mean, that depressive heavy metal is connected to the lyrics of course, but moreover the so called heavy metal genre got this melancholic/dark (exatly in Down) influence...I think this style is between heavy metal and gothic metal, but I prefer to call it in this way, cus the whole Sentenced image, appearance and presentation is far from the gothic, I think. Btw, do you or one of your acquaintance have some old Sentenced shirt, that is does not need anymore, cus I looking forward very much to get some old stuff...?
---- Life has given me much, maybe taken more...
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| Sentenced Odiin gothic.moorion@gmail.com Posts: 260 |
Written by Skøllgrim on 25.07.2009 at 21:30 OK thanks...btw if u want i will pleased if u add me to ur msn
---- Life has given me much, maybe taken more...
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| Bad English Tage Westerlund Posts: 62135  |
Ville was like blessimg into this band, best what they did... death metal cant be memorable songs if you love emotions into music, here band gave it whole album is amazing, to understand it you should spend year in 1996 in Oulu to understand why I talk so much about emotions. Greta lyrics, agarments and singing, simply brilliant change and band , it will never die not until Nordic darkness will shine so bright into cold winter day
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die"  I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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