HOUWITSER is a Death Metal band from the Netherlands that was created by guitar player Michel Alderliefsten. The band started in 1998 and was disbanded in 2004 after a couple of albums. In 2007, the only remaining member and founder of the band, Michel got another gang and they are releasing their latest album called Sentinel Beast that has an amazing cover artwork. The sound is very Death oriented with blast beats galore and guttural vocals all the way as you can hear in the 2 first tracks “Burning Dogma” and “Sentinel Beast”. The riffs come thick and fast and not everything is blast beats like in the good “King Of Madness” that has a more doom feel.

You can hear the clear influences of DEATH, ENTOMBED and OBITUARY with very intricate guitar parts as you can hear in “Ruin Of Man” and “Onwards To Battle” and the last one is my favorite so far with interesting riff changes. You can notice that the band aims to plunge listeners into a maelstrom of sonic brutality. However, despite the band's evident technical skills and passion for the genre, the album falls short in originality in some respects. The songs are starting to sound the same and despite having an amazing drummer in Marten van Kruijssen, the relentless barrage of blast beats and tremolo-picked riffs quickly may become monotonous after some time. We go slower and darker on “Echoes Of Anguish” as it burns my tongue with something a little different finally. A variety of moods and tempos makes this one a little more interesting tahn the others. At some points the guys remind me of early SEPULTURA like in the Schizophrenia album.

The guitar riffs from Michel Alderliefsten and Richard Gielen are solid despite not much solos or guitar histrionics in the majority of the tunes as you can hear in “Paradise Falls”. Many of the tracks feel a little formulaic sometimes, adhering too strictly to Death Metal tropes without adding any fresh ideas or dynamics. Songs often blur together, making it difficult to distinguish one from another especially when you have a monotomatic guttural vocals all the way. Welcoming you to slavery is the final tune “Dehumanized” and is another core tune to stay within the confines of traditional death metal. This approach may satisfy die-hard fans of the genre, but it does little to push the boundaries or introduce new elements to keep the genre evolving. Good work from the band but it gives me the impression that I have heard this before as the album is well produced and played, but after you finish, no tunes stay with you.