Nick: Sentenced-Forever Lost
Really cool groove on this, though might be a tad long
A number of years ago, I sampled Sentenced and the vocals basically made them a non starter for me. This song is a great reintroduction to the band. What I hear while listening to this is Blaze Era Iron maiden. The intro is a sounds like Maiden (with a little Eye Of The Beholder underneath), but it’s as if this is a Harris/Gers piece. At 3:44, and again at 4:50, all I hear is Janick. I also hear a little Fields Of The Nephilim slightly as well.
If you ever dig into the band, there are 3 distinct periods (death metal, mid-period, super melodic with a new singer) that the band evolved through. Listening to one of their later records is drastically different than one of their earlier records.
Hey, thanks for poking your head in....where does this song come from?
The mid-period. Quick rundown:
Death Metal period:
Shadows from the Past - debut, self-admitted Death rip-off album
North from Here - more technical, European influenced melodic death/black metal album. Around this time they recorded a ripping cover of The Trooper.
Mid period
Amok - this album has the song that you listened to. It was the same lineup, but they dropped the death metal and introduced much more melody. Nepenthe is the "hit" song from this album.
Love and Death EP - EP in a similar style, with a fun cover of White Wedding.
New Singer / Later Period
They changed singers to Ville Laihalla. These are my favorite albums that the band put out - the music turned more gothic influenced, melodic and up-tempo, with ultra-melancholy lyrics about death, depression, love, morose feelings, suicide, etc. Ville could sing better than Taneli Jarva as well, carrying more of a tune. A good comparison would be songs similar in style to Paradise Lost / Say Just Words.
Grappler beat me to it...
Yep, that's a good summary...Tim, as I mentioned in the PM, I'd say Amok is pretty unique even within their own discography. It's one of those cases where the style is clearly transitioning, but the result is just, well, lightning in a bottle. I LOVE Amok. I remember being blown away by it when it came out, and it hasn't lost an ounce of charm. As Grappler mentioned, the song Nepenthe was a mild "hit" in metal circles when it came out. But almost every tune is great, so I encourage you to check the rest out.
The good news is (hope I'm not spoiling anything)...my extra credit song is another Sentenced tune from a different period
so you can hear for yourself. It's from their second to last album, Cold White Light - even though it's not, as a whole, an absolute favorite (although I think it's great too), that song is so good and catchy I couldn't resist. Of the Ville period, Down and Frozen are probably the (twin) peaks for me. Urgent, melancholic, catchy metal. Good stuff.
As for the comments on the song - super happy you enjoyed it. I didn't necessarily think of THAT Maiden comparison (this came out right around X Factor, I believe), but I see where that's coming from. I still stand by my statement that the part around 4:50 sounds like an absolutely
classic Maiden moment