SENTENCED — When Death Join Us... (review)

SENTENCED — When Death Join Us... album cover Demo · 1990 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
UMUR
"When Death Join Us..." is the first demo by Finland, Muhos based death metal act Sentenced. The demo was released on cassette tape in November 1990. The band 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. Muhos is a town in nothern Finland and although both thrash and speed metal acts existed in the northern part of Finland, Sentenced were one of the first (if not the first) death metal act from the northern part of the country (the Turku and the Helsinki scenes were active slightly earlier with releases from artists like Xysma, Funebre, and Abhorrence).

Stylistically the material on "When Death Join Us..." is strongly "Leprosy" (1988)-era Death influenced death metal. Considering the high level of technical playing on the demo, it´s amazing to discover that the oldest band member at the time of recording the demo was drummer Vesa Ranta, who was 17...the remaining members were only 15-16 years old, including main songwriter/lead guitarist/vocalist Miika Tenkula. Tenkula deserves a whole book written about him, as he is one of great unsung heroes of the Finnish death (and later gothic metal) scene, and already this early on showed exceptional playing skills and sophistication in his songwriting. Just listen to the guitar playing on the acoustic intro track "Hallucinations". Is that really a 16 year old boy who has composed and plays that...?

The remaining 4 tracks on the 5 track, 21:17 minutes long demo are more regular death metal compositions. Sharp, brutal, and effectful tracks, with the aggressive and intelligible growling vocals of Tenkula in front (audibly influenced by Chuck Shuldiner). The occasional lead guitar/solo part spices up the music, and shows yet again that Tenkula was far more advanced than his birth certificate reveals. The same can be said about the other guys in the band, who are also very competent musicians for their age.

"When Death Join Us..." features a well sounding production for a demo release from 1990, and upon conclusion it´s quite the impressive first release by Sentenced. Sure they didn´t yet have a unique sound, but there is generally great promise here of future greatness and a 3 star (60%) rating isn´t all wrong.
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