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Rating: Premise: if you didn't appreciate the previous "The Cold White Light," considering it too sappy and melodic, you can stop reading right now. "The Funeral Album" is indeed even more delicate and "smoothed" of any roughness (with a few brief exceptions).
This new release enjoys a production that brings the band - alas - closer to their fellow countrymen HIM (after all, the producer is the same). That said, the Sentenced, even on this album, demonstrate a class that HIM can only dream of.
It starts with May Today Become The Day, the most energetic song of the album: the chorus will instantly stick in your head, and you'll find it difficult to shake it off.
Ever-Frost is one of the best tracks, and it most closely resembles the style of The Cold White Light. We Are But Falling Leaves is probably the masterpiece of the album and shows perhaps the best quality of Sentenced: the ability to move you. The touching chorus inevitably leads us to reflect on the meaning of our existence. Her Last 5 Minutes is introduced by a delicate intro interrupted by a brief Candlemass-style riff, but it remains inferior to the previous three. And here’s the first unexpected surprise: Where Waters Fall Frozen, fifty-eight seconds of devastating death/black metal that recalls the band’s early days.
Despair-Ridden Hearts is another great piece introduced by clean guitar and a Springsteen-like harmonica, progressively growing in intensity. Vengeance Is Mine is another burst of energy where the band inserts some curious twists like a children’s choir and the sounds of a music box. A Long Way To Nowhere and Consider Us Dead do not match the quality of the first part of the album, and Lower The Flags sounds entirely like a song by HIM. Drain Me brings back some liveliness but doesn’t engage much.
Karu is a short acoustic track perhaps inspired by some traditional Finnish theme. End Of The Road (which vaguely recalls Tiamat's Prey) is the moving farewell of the band to the fans.
In conclusion, The Funeral Album is a good work, probably inferior to the previous, but surely of quality.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 May Today Become the Day (04:00)
Rain trumps the lifeless ground
Drops as cold as Ice
The doors breaking
The trench are shaking
The fire hits us all around
When the siren cries
Forward, forward we go into attack!
May today become the day
As I plunge into the grave
Let it slide in
All the signs are there
They all think that I'm brave
The strongest link of our chain
But really I gotta say that ain't how it's like
Closing in, I'm slowing down
warren fire, blood
our lines breaking and death is taking
All our men from all around
Into pools of mud
Forward, forward, there is no turning back!
May today become the day
As I plunge into the grave
Let it slide in
All the signs are there
They all think that I'm brave
The strongest link of our chain
But really I gotta say that ain't not how it's like
The fallback calling as the soldiers keep falling
Forward, forward, I am not turning back!
May today become the day
As I plunge into the grave
Let it slide in
All the signs are there
They all think that I'm brave
The strongest link of our chain
But really I just wanna go back between my eyes
Aim high
08 A Long Way to Nowhere (03:26)
Approaching the moment now
Long hard journey in its end
Starting to loom right now,
The final round and then it hits you
It kicks you, it slicks you in hell
All the toil and all exhaustion
All those times we hated
All the losses, sacrifices
All those things were missed
All the suffering and distortion
Shit we tolerated
All that we abandoned
All for this
Our scattered hope fall down
The zeal turns to negligence
The shattered dreams all down
Crumbled around
That's when it shakes you
It quakes you, it breaks you
It kades you, it fades you
Degrades you in laughs
Enough, enough, too much is more than we can take
All those hits we took, persistence was in vain
Enough, enough, too much is all than I can feel
Down the drain
Just bitterness remains
It shakes you, it quakes you
It breaks you, it hates you
Degrades you in laughs
All the battles, all the dirts and victories we tasted
All the tension, all the misery and all the bless
All the passion, all the hurt and all the love we wasted
All the purgatories, all for this
There's nothing else...
10 Lower the Flags (03:34)
He's gone, he is dead
His remains upon the hearse ahead
As silently we wander through the mist
He's free
This is the end
Your journey's over, night descends
Below... Into the abyss
Farewell, my friend, you will be missed
Lower the flags
A good man has passed
He has reached the last of frontiers
Lower the flags
Down to half-mast
For again the world has taken a turn for the worse
He's gone, he is dead
Six feet of earth upon his head
Now lay your wreaths
Upon the one who lies beneath
Although you're gone
In memories you shall live on
Asleep... In peace now rest
The weight of the world is off your chest
Lower the flags
A good man has passed
He has reached the last of frontiers
Lower the flags
Down to half-mast
For again the world has taken a turn for the worse
That mourning light I'll always remember
And these August nights; cold as December
Lower the flags
A good man has passed
He has reached the last of frontiers
Lower the flags
Down to half-mast
For again the world has taken a turn for the worse
11 Drain Me (04:33)
Always pretending to want you
It's so easy to make you play my game
Always deceiving to get you
So goddamn easy to make you scream my name
No remorse, no repent
Still to you I'm heaven-sent
I don't need a reason to hate you
I don't need a reason to brake you. *
Just keep that mouth wide open
And drain me my darling
I don't need to care if you want me
I don't need to care if you need me
Just spread that pink wide smile
And drain me my darling
For so many years I've been faking
It's so hard to keep lying and smiling in vain
For so many years I've been taking
Innocence soiled, hey babe, your loss is my gain
No remorse, no repent
Still to you I'm heaven-sent
I don't need a reason to hate you
I don't need a reason to brake you
Just keep that mouth wide open
And drain me my darling
I don't need to care if you want me
I don't need to care if you need me
Just spread that pink wide smile
And drain me my darling
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Other reviews
By kissarmy
"Sentenced want to leave by leaving a deep wound in Finnish metal, and so far, they’re succeeding!"
"Sentenced no longer exist but their songs, especially from this album, will remain marked in the history of heavy metal."
