Band:	Sentenced
Album:	The Funeral Album
Style:	Depressive heavy metal, Suomi metal
Release date:	May 2005

01. May Today Become The Day
02. Ever-Frost
03. We Are But Falling Leaves
04. Her Last 5 Minutes
05. Where Waters Fall Frozen
06. Despair-Ridden Hearts
07. Vengeance Is Mine
08. A Long Way To Nowhere
09. Consider Us Dead
10. Lower The Flags
11. Drain Me
12. Karu
13. End Of The Road

Then the time has come, a time that I hoped never would come, Sentenced's last album, the end of a band that means so much for so many, including me.
Because with the release of "The Funeral Album", one of the largest, if not the largest, "Suicide Metal" band is committing mass-suicide right in front of our eyes.
After 12 long years, Sentenced has decided to put the band to rest.

For me this is really sad, since their latest release "The Cold White Light" is an album that means so much for me, no other album has touched me so deep, and I've spent countless hours in front of the stereo listening to "TCWL" and thinking over my life (it's working like a mentor for me).

But now, this review is not about my thought about life and death, it's about the last message from Sentenced, the album that says, "goodbye".
A very remarkable thing with "The Funeral Album" is that it's one of it's kind, I can't really say that I've ever heard of a band that made an album specially for putting the band to rest. But then, there are no other bands like Sentenced.

"The Funeral Album" is Sentenced's way to break up, instead of waiting for a down period, major troubles between the members or bad sales, Sentenced has chosen to put the band down now, when they still are in the top of their career, when they still are friends, and for that, they should have the biggest and greatest of all praises.

But even if I hate the fact that Sentenced will be no more, I also understand them and respect their decision. They had a wonderful career and they succeeded to release an album they'll never overcome ("TCWL"). So to take the brave decision to but the band to rest now should be meet with respect, how frustrating it might be.

It's really hard to bring forward good and bad things when it comes to Sentenced, since I have such strong feelings for the band, but I'll try to be as neutral as I can.
Among the bad things I can find on this album is that the material feels much weaker this time, there aren't really any songs that fills you with this feeling of committing suicide or filling your eyes with tears, at least not in the same way songs like "Guilt & Regret", Aika Multaa Muistot" & "No One There" did on "TCWL".
And the good, well that's even more impossible, since I finds everything good about Sentenced, and the sound on this album is as sorrow-filled as last time.

On the other hand, "The Funeral Album" follows the same "concept" as "TCWL" & "Crimson", it's Heavy Metal mixed with Gothic Metal and lyrics about death, despair and suicide. But this time the music also represent Sentenced throughout the whole career, as the short instrumental song "Where Waters Fall Frozen" a song that sounds much like the old Sentenced, back in the days they were a Death Metal act.
But it's mostly the later years of their career that fills the album, the era that has just been, and that will end with "The Funeral Album".

However you twist of turn it, "The Funeral Album" is Sentenced's swan song, it will end all kinds of eras, and I know many will miss the band.
I guess it doesn't matter what I say here since if you like/love the band, you'll buy the album anyway. I'll just say that you'll buy a great album that really sounds like Sentenced in all ways, but it's not a new "TCWL", and in some strange way, I'm happy it's not. This is a good album to end a successful career, but it's not their best.

Thank you Sentenced, for a long and wonderful career, I thank you for all your music and actually hope you'll come back one day, even if you said you never will.

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