SENTENCED — Shadows of the Past (review)

SENTENCED — Shadows of the Past album cover

Album · 1991 · Death Metal

3.5/5 · 2022-01-01
UMUR

"Shadows of the Past" is the debut full-length studio album by Finland, Muhos based death metal act Sentenced. The album was released through Thrash Records in December 1991. Sentenced was founded in 1988 under the Deformity monicker and played thrash metal, but changed their name to the current one in 1989, and with the name change also the musical direction from thrash to death metal. The "When Death Join Us..." demo from November 1990 was the band´s first release and the "Rotting Ways to Misery" demo followed in June 1991. Both cassette tape demos which showed a very young band (15-18 years old when recording the demos) with both great playing skills and a good understanding of composition. There have been one lineup change since the demo days as bassist Lari Kylmänen has been replaced by Taneli Jarva.

"Shadows of the Past" was recorded and mixed at Tico-Tico Studio, Kemi in October 1991 with producer/engineer Ahti Kortelainen, which is where the band´s two demos were also recorded. All 6 tracks from the "Rotting Ways to Misery" demo were re-recorded and included on the album. Although the "When Death Join Us..." demo actually features a track titled "Shadows of the Past", no songs from that demo appear on this album.

Stylistically the material on "Shadows of the Past" is more or less the epitome of old school early 90s death metal. Not just the Scandinavian sort, because the music features a lot of different influences. I hear a lot of late 80s Death (the band) influences, maybe a bit of contemporary Morgoth, and also quite a few early Paradise Lost influences, as well as influences from the late 80s/early 90s Swedish scene. It´s actually a great strength to be able to create an album with so many different stylistic elements and make it work. Sentenced are an incredibly well playing band though (the oldest member of the band was 18 years old at the time of recording this album) and they deliver a heavy (even doom/death heavy at times), brutal, yet still occasionally melodic tinged death metal attack with both great passion and conviction. Every member of the band deserves a mention for their strong musical performances, but lead vocalist/lead guitarist/main songwriter Miika Tenkula does deserve a special mention for his intense and aggresive growling vocals, and for his strong and intricate lead guitar work.

While the Finnish death metal underground was very active in the late 80s/early 90s, producing quite a few demos, splits, and EPs, "Shadows of the Past" was one of the first full-length studio album releases from the scene, along with the 1991 debut albums by Xysma, Funebre, and Convulse. In that sense Sentenced are arguably one of the pioneers of the scene, and would also grow to become one of the most successful Finnish metal acts of the 90s along with Amorphis. While the band would never again release anything resembling the sound of "Shadows of the Past", as they had already moved on to other musical styles at the time of the album´s release, it´s still a high quality old school death metal album, and it´s highly recommedable to fans of the genre. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is fully deserved.