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Rating:
Did I buy an HIM CD? ...mmmm... no, it says Sentenced, even on the CD it says Sentenced... The singer isn't hot, so they aren't HIM.
But joking aside, we have to say that Sentenced, from the glorious death/black beginnings of North From Here and from that masterpiece Amok, especially due to Tanel Jarva's vocal performances, have made many changes.
If you can't stand HIM and their "love metal" (brrrrrr... gives me chills just to write it) go read something else because this CD is not for you.
Saccharine melodies that wouldn't look out of place on MTV then? Yes, but with some exceptions. For starters, kudos to the beautiful limited edition digipack/cardboard packaging that could at least add a bit of elegance to the row of CDs you have on your nightstand, even though it has no practical role since you'll listen to it maybe five times.
If in previous albums, without the need to bring up Amok but referring only to the previous Ville Laihiala (vocals) era ones, namely Frozen and Crimson, the feeling was certainly dark-oriented with dark, depressing melodies and whatever else you might expect from a band that is one of the pillars of gothic made in Finland, here everything is more slick, even the most innovative and brilliant ideas are smothered by such a quantity of cheesy and sugary rock/gothic that surely won't displease many young enthusiasts of this genre.
The exceptions mainly concern a handful of songs that slightly deviate from the album's general trend: Excuse While I'm Killing Myself, which basically has the task of waking us from the coma we will have sunk into after the first five tracks, The Luxury Of A Grave, which has more or less the purpose of the aforementioned one, only with the difference that it is even more aggressive, and it must be because if we have made it in one go to the end of the CD, we deserve a nice reward.
The last gem is You Are The One, which despite being little more than a cheesy rock/gothic ballad, manages to engage, especially in the beautiful chorus where finally the guitars explode with a vitality and freshness that we dream of throughout the rest of the CD.
"A coffin will be way too nice, a see-through plastic bag will do just fine" (The Luxury of a Grave) but we are not talking about a corpse, we are talking about how to hide the CD ;)
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