SENTENCED — Amok (review)

Album · 1995 · Death Metal

3.5/5 · 2025-01-18
UMUR

"Amok" is the third full-length studio album by Finland, Muhos based death/gothic metal act Sentenced. The album was released through Century Media Records in January 1995. It´s the successor to "North From Here" (1993) although the two full-length studio albums are bridged by the October 1994 EP "The Trooper". The quartet lineup who recorded "North From Here" (1993) is intact on "Amok"...

...and the fact that there haven´t been any lineup changes and that lead guitarist Miika Tenkula is still the main songwriter in the band is quite frankly baffling when you listen to the material on "Amok" compared to the sound and style of the material featured on "North From Here" (1993). Sentenced were a very young band when they started out (releasing their first demo "When Death Join Us..." in November 1990) and they were constantly changing their sound and style in the first 5 years of the band´s existence. The change from the old school death metal sound on "Shadows of the Past" (1991) to the melodic and technical blackened death metal style on "North From Here" (1993) was also a great stylistic change, but the change is even more significant between "North From Here" (1993) and "Amok".

Stylistially the material on "Amok" is a melodic and gothic/doom tinged death´n´roll style and the music often sounds like contemporary Paradise Lost mixed with some Cemetary/Tiamat and some 80s traditional heavy metal and goth rock influences (complete with the occasional female backing vocals). In that respect the core sound isn´t particularly original, but Sentenced still manage to sound unique. The lead guitar work by Tenkula is quite exquisite and deserves a special mention, but the vocals by bassist/lead vocalist Taneli Jarva are also worth a mention as they sound very unique. He has a raw semi-growlig vocal style, but he is able to put a lot of melody and emotion into his delivery. The vocals are probably an aquired taste, but to my ears they are a treat...

The material is well written, instantly catchy, and memorable. There´s also enough variation between tracks to keep the album entertaining throughout. "Amok" features a decent sounding production job, but the drums and the bass could have been given more room in the mix. They are often completely overshadowed by the vocals, the hard rocking guitar riffs, and the soaring melancholic leads. "Amok" is overall a great release though, and quite frankly a huge surprise if you´re familiar with the preceding Sentenced releases. If you know your death metal history, in retrospect the stylistic change isn´t that surprising though, as many Scandinavian artists (many of them Sentenced´s fellow countrymen) turned their backs on old school death metal at this point and started incorporating rock´n´roll and traditional heavy metal elements to their core death metal sound. Upon conclusion Sentenced succeeded pretty well in doing that on "Amok" and a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.