Customer Reviews

The Funeral Album

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Here we have a band of 5 warriors who know the wisdom of quitting while they're ahead. After being instrumental (and criminally overlooked!) in the development of the melodic Finnish death metal style (continued today by bands like Children of Bodom and Norther), after releasing one of the absolute best metal albums I've ever heard (Amok), and after proving that they can be just as catchy as the average power metal band (every album after that, particularly Cold White Light), they're calling it a day. And calling it in style. They've delivered a virtually flawless album. If there are imperfections here, it'll be a while before I find them! The production is squeaky-clean, every instrument is prominent. The guitars are a bit low in the mix, which is unusual for heavy metal. The bass is very full-bodied and you can hear it easily.

Sentenced have long focused on composing ear-catching melodies that you can sing along to with lyrical themes focusing mostly on death, suicide, and sorrow (and the occasional drinking anthem). While this album is basically a cleaner extension of The Cold White Light, it contains a few throwbacks to yesterday's Sentenced in the form of a short instrumental track (Where Waters Fall Frozen) which sounds like it's straight off of North From Here; and also Ever-Frost contains some anti-Christian lyrics, something I haven't heard since Amok (though I could have missed it somewhere). No technical showing off here, just melodies that will careen from one side of your brain to the other with deliriously catchy choruses and a cool choir that appears in two songs.

The ending is perfect. A great guitar solo is what we're left with when it's all over. I don't think we wanted Sentenced to leave us, but since they've made their decision, I couldn't have asked for a better swan song. Again: perfect.

Sentenced is dead and it is my task to bring you this solemn news. It seems that after 14 years the five members of this Finnish band have made the command decision and decided to end the bands existence. "The Funeral Album" released on Century Media Records is the closest thing to a suicide note that investigators could find. As original fans will remember, Sentenced was known for blazing Death/Black Metal but several years ago switched gears and took on a more Traditional & Gothic mannerism to their performance and style. This release continues along those lines, and this is fine with me since it shows how diverse bands have proven themselves to be over time. Amorphis recently delivered a similar thing to their fans with "Far From The Sun" as the record was not what their normal fan base had expected either. "The Funeral Album" is full of tracks that signify the ending of ones life and while morose as a topic, most of these tracks are excellent. Very moody and dark and yet poignant more often than they are not. The titles use cryptic metaphors such as "We Are Falling Leaves", or "Lower The Flags" and "End Of The Road" just by reading them you kind of knows what the band is getting at.

Starting off with "May The Day Become The Day" the piece wastes no time in bringing you into the sad journey that is the Death of this band. This is such a rocking that you end up listening a couple of times in a row before you continue further. You then have tracks like "Her Last 5 Minutes" and in this there is a very Type-O-Negative feel to it at parts. Especially from their October Rust CD. Fans will know the sound when it comes on. There is one blazing metal track which is the instrumental "Where Waters Fall Frozen". It is the closest thing from the bands early days that fans will find on the piece. As this is an almost theme album, it is best listened to from beginning to end and that is how I recommend it. Musically it is very strong and stylish at the same time due to the consistency of its production. The band members we mourn on this release are Sami Kukkovhani, Miika Tenkula, Ville Laihiala, Sami Lopakka and Vesa Ranta. The band has said their will be no returning from this as they are moving on. A live DVD is said to be forthcoming from some of these final performances. The music truly stands strong enough to make a good concert piece so I look forward to that.

I have to say that I loved the CD for it crossed a little more into Hard Rock than remaining entirely in the Gothic aspect. While I hope that this is some Marketing scheme going on in the band and we are being misled, it is entirely probable that the time has come for them to end. The Funeral Album serves as a profound headstone to their 14 year career. May They Rest In Peace....

i first was introduced to sentenced with The cold white light,
it blew me away, an awesome cd. everything they have done has been so mellow yet catchy, sentenced are indeed in a class all of there own. it did not take me long to buy all of there other cd's from crimson down to amok/love and death.
me personally i love there more mellow music.
i'm sure there are fans that enjoyed there earlier day and thats fine, i have a collection of plenty of heavy cd's ranging from dark tranquility to bloodbath and so forth,
but from DOWN to THE FUNERAL ALBUM i love them all.
there are a ton of great songs on this cd.
this is just my opinion i know but i feel that there best song ever was on there last cd THE COLD WHITE LIGHT, and that song is AIKA MULTAA MUISTOT ( EVERYTHING IS NOTHING).
such a beautiful song and speaks to me on many different levels,
as does VENGENCE IS MINE, in my opionon that is the best song on THE FUNERAL ALBUM.

I could speak all day about this band, they are on my top 5 list of my all time favorite bands. if you love metal of any size shape or form, you really need to buy this cd, you will not be disappointed i promise. they are just so relaxing to listen to
a nice change of pace from my catalogue of mostly death and thrash and so forth.

we can only hope that like every band before them that "quits" ;] , they start to miss each other or something in a few years and comes back for a few more cd's.

good-bye sentenced.

R.I.P.

I've been a fan of Sentenced since 1998 with the release of "FROZEN". Few bands have captivated me like this one, and the funny thing is, I cant put my finger on what it is that captivates about them. I think it's that you can feel in their music that they doing exactly what they love(or loved?). Farewell my beautiful...Anyway, back to this album. It is beautiful. Again the 80's inspired metal, with the depth that the rest lacks, I love how theyve made sum dubble bass kicks feature more in sum of the songs,whick really elevates the music in the right quantities. In all, this is a goodbye album, and you start really realising it when you reach "LOWER THE FLAGS" and the final "END OF THE ROAD"(really sad song,jst made even more sad by the feeling that the song doesnt wana stop with that'one last time' feel) REally a must have for any Sentenced fan, past or present. We owe it...Thanks R

Well, when i first got the word of this bad ceasing to exist anymore, i was truely angry moreso then in mourning. I thought how is it possible for a truely talented band as them to call it quits. To me they co-existed and jelled together so well. The music generated had so much passion, and meaning. I couldnt believe that this is it. It definitely left a dark black emptiness in music, at least for me anyway. I guess you could say they ended on top of things. But still will be sadly missed by me and hopefully by millions more. I have every album from "north from here" to pesent. Never dropped the ball on any album as far as i'm concerned. Same is true for "the funeral ablbum" Although not my very favorite from them, still very solid. Recommended as a must buy album... holds true to form to the rest of there latter albums. In my opinion, this bad can never be copied or repeated. They are definitely one of a kind. That is why it is so sad to see it end. Anyone reading this, please do yourself a favor, buy this as well as there other albums. It will be well worth the investment. The end of one of the best. R.I.P.

Sentenced has put out a very listenable album to end their career. Most of the songs take on a death theme, but I don't get the sense that they were very sad while making this cd. In fact, it seems like they were just doing what they loved and isn't that how we all want to die?

This happens to be the first Sentenced album I've ever heard, and I loved it. Being the last they'll ever release, the album has a sad and vengeful quality to it.
My fobbish friend mistakenly told me that the whole band committed suicide after making this album, and that is what I believed while listening to this album for two weeks afterwards. It really does sound like the band members poured all of their being into this album, as if it was their last chance to leave a mark on this world before fading into eternity.

It's hard to find an album or in this case, band, that you can seriously put the cd on in your car and not have to chop and change songs. Sentenced' last 2 albums are firmly entrenched in my car. For me, the song writing is the best part of this band and then add the sound they portray and you can kiss goodbye to all the other crappy bands that have 1 good song per CD.

Sentenced is just one of those bands. So many fans praise each and every one of their releases, while I struggle through each album, trying to figure out what it is that makes them so popular. These guys started off as a decent sounding death metal band, but have ended up being more of a gothic rock band. I guess something in between later Paradise Lost and Type O Negative might give you some idea, but I'm not completely happy with that comparison. I thought it would only be fair for me to spend some quality time listening to "The Funeral Album" due to the fact that this is the last studio album Sentenced will ever produce.

Musically, this is a mixed bag. I don't suppose I can criticise Sentenced too much for their actual musical qualities, the main problem is that there is just nothing here that really grabs the listener and makes them listen. It's all by the numbers rock with splashes of heavier sections here and there. Occasionally they add little atmospheric flourishes that could have taken some of these tracks to a new level, but they just don't follow through with them for any period of time. But in the end it's reasonably solid music with some decent moments such as the opener "May Today Become the Day" and the closer "End of the Road". "Where Waters Fall Frozen" is a minute long death metal instrumental that brings back some of the aggression from their early days. This may be a special moment for those fans that have stuck with Sentenced throughout their career, but it really sounds out of place on this album and could have been done without.

What I find really difficult to bare though is some of the appalling vocals by lead singer Ville. I mean, these guys have been doing this since 1988 and they haven't managed to find a decent vocalist in all that time. When things are rocking he's quite OK if nothing brilliant, but when things slow down, which they have been more and more in recent times, he just sounds terrible. This is the main reason that I can't recommend this album. I'm going to give "The Funeral Album" a generous 3 due to some decent tunes and slightly out of respect for the ending of a long career, but I'll finish this review with the following words.

Farewell Sentenced. I won't miss you one little bit.

I am a lifelong metal fan and I love to stray from the mainstream, but only recently have I been dabbling in the European underground. I've heard some good things about Sentenced and decided to make this final album of theirs my first. I do like how they're bringing the band to an official end with a concept album about a death and a funeral. Sentenced deal in mature no-nonsense classic metal, they're accomplished songwriters and solid players, and they offer a positive listening experience. However, I hear very little distinctiveness or uniqueness in their approach. (This may also be a function of where they are now in their history.) There is some creativity in a few places here, like a choir in "Vengeance is Mine," some piano melody in "Lower the Flags," and a surprise harmonica in "Despair-Ridden Hearts." You can also credit "May Today Become the Day" and "Consider Us Dead" as strong and compelling slabs of solid metal. But I was hoping that since Sentenced are from Finland, they would offer some homegrown and distinctive ideas from their country (something the Norwegians are good at), but they deliver little other than the tried-and-true sounds of classic American metal, especially mid-period Metallica (Black Album era). Singer Ville Laihiala is also stuck in an impression of James Hetfield from that same period, with a slightly exotic accent. Sentenced can be seen as competent and talented at delivering the metal goods, but with few unique traits or new ideas. Longtime fans can judge this album favorably or unfavorably in terms of the large Sentenced back catalog, but those looking for something new or fascinating won't be too excited. [~doomsdayer520~]