This is the first album by this popular Finnish group, and a far cry from what they have become in recent years. Stylistically this album reminds me a lot of earlier Death and Obituary, with many of the slower, doomy death passages you'd come to expect from an album like 'Leprosy' or 'Slowly We Rot'. On some of the tracks like "Rot to Dead" and "Disengagement", the similarity is so blatant that several of the riffs are almost directly ripped off Death (with a few note changes). If you have the newer version of this CD, re-issued by Century Media in 1995, the "Journey to Pohjola" demo from 1992 was included. These latter 3 tracks mark a noted improvement in the style, the riffs are more melodic and the band is far tighter, Tenkula moderating his Schuldiner-esque growls with several higher-pitched growls. All in all, this album probably appeals best to die hard fans of early 90s death metal (specifically Death). If you are a fan of mid-to-late Sentenced, you should probably avoid this altogether and purchase later albums like "Amok" and "Down", which have a far greater lasting value.

© 2000 pizarro