Sentenced- Crimson


Sentenced return with another album that strays even further from its roots. But unlike a lot of closed-minded death metal fans, I think this is one of the best albums they have released yet. A lot more solid of an album that Frozen and definitely a lot more variety.

1. Bleed In My Arms: A good first song for the album. The melody in this song is amazing and gives you a taste of whats to come. Also, of note is the the Lake Of Tears-like guitar solo in the middle and the first use of the piano at the tail-end of the song.
2. Home In Despair: Another kick ass track that reminded me a lot of Grave Sweet Grave off Frozen. Very pop-rock oriented with insightful lyrics into the manic-depressive mind.
3. Fragile: I must admit, when I first saw this song title, I nearly skipped over it because I thought it would be a Nine Inch Nails/industrial ripoff but I was dead wrong. In this song, Ville uses his darkest voice and the overall feel could be mildly described as industrial sounding but I think thats primarily based on their suicidal lyrical content. This song has a great chorus and right before the solo kicks in, you'll hear a quick drum fill that sounds larger than life.
4. No More Beating As One: The acoustic beginning to this song threw me off and I still don't care for it too much but after that, the song rocks as good as any Sentenced song. Again, Ville is using a darker sounding voice. The big down-point to this song is when the music stops and Ville sings solo- his voice isn't really strong enough on that part.
5. Broken: Another song I nearly skipped over because of the song title. Thankfully, I discovered it later on after I had this for a while. This song borrows a lot from The Suicider (F) and the guitar solo in the middle borrows directly from Kingston Wall and their Finnish peers Amorphis.
6. Killing Me Killing You: This one is the bands first single and the bands ballad. Very cool use of the piano and especially good use of Villes vocal talents here. This song starts off slow but speeds up for the chorus. The bridge in the middle of this song is where the harmonies shine. The only complaint with the song is the chorus is too repetitive (Killing me, killing you, killing all we had, burning you, burning me, burning us to ash- repeated over and over again begins to annoy)
7. Dead Moon Rising: This is the b-side to the Killing Me Killing You single and the song has a lot of industrial sounds mixed in especially toward the end (the end reminds me of the solo in Stabbing Westward's What Do I Have To Do). Another good rock song.
8. The River: This song flipped me over the top. I was really surprised to hear how bluesy the band could sound here. This is a semi-acoustic almost Alice In Chains-y sounding track. The music stays that way for the whole 5 minutes too. Even more shocking is this song almost has a positive message ("What can I do now except see this through and float with the stream off the shore"). Of course, if you hear the rest of the lyrics, you'll know the song is about crawling in a bottle for safety.
9. One More Day: The only song to this day I still don't care for at all. The chorus reeks of industrial music and the verses sound like a really bad Geoff Tate or Roger Waters singing. 10 songs out of 11 is nothing to be ashamed of though.
10. With Bitterness And Joy: Another song with a positive message.."life has given me much, maybe taken more, but those good times were always worth waiting for". This song reminded me a bit of Shadegrown (Down) in the use of acoustics over electric guitars.
11. My Slowing Heart: Both Miika and Sami shine here. Very heavy riffs that sounds very inspired by early Megadeth. Ville sounds as evil as I've ever heard him here and Sami (Kukkohovi) does a nice little bass solo toward the end. The lyrics are the most depressing off the disc but this finalizes the album. "I had it all and I had none and now the game is over and I am done". The chorus on this song is a bit slower and the vocals are layered so you hear more than one vocal line at once.

How the band will top this I have yet to figure out. This is one of the best albums by Sentenced and I have a feeling it will be the best of 2000. Also of note is that Crimson seems to follow a storyline of a depressed individual. Listen to the way The River, One More Day, With Bitterness And Joy and My Slowing Heart tie in with the rest of the album.