As said sometime ago, the North American Death Metal school has a tendency of keeping things as classic as they can, or in other words, rely on the model used by the bands of the Second Wave of the genre, ignited between the final days of the 80s and early days of the 90s. It’s not a matter of being ‘false’ or ‘true’, and not a kind of ‘fear’ of the unknown, but a feature of North American Death Metal scene. But again: it’s not because you’re on an Old School format that you can’t do a good musical work, what is done by the quartet SENTIENT HORROR, as heard on the band’s new full-length, “In Service of the Dead”.

Hailing from Stockholm (not the capital city of Sweden, please), on New Jersey, the band’s music is a classic Death Metal way filled with influences from Thrash/Death Metal Metal (earning their music a very good technical outfit), Hardcore and Grindcore (pay attention to the insane blast beats on “Undead Mutation”), a formula already known. But paying attention on the instrumental arrangements, one check these guys have guts, using a strong personality to unleash a storm of aggressiveness and energy on the fans’ ears. Maybe it’s nothing new at all, but’s very good, indeed.

Scot Moriarty (sound engineering and recording of the drums) and Matt Moliti (producer and sound engineering of the guitars, bass and vocals) set things for Noah C. Buchanan (who signs the mixing and mastering), and their efforts created a sonority that respect the classic Death Metal format used by USA bands, but with an updated outfit that allows the fans to understand clearly what’s expressed. And the creations of Juanjo Castellano (artwork) and Nestor Carrera (layout) boost the experience of dealing with a Death Metal release.

“The Way of Decay”, “Undead Mutation” (sickening blast beats and rhythmic contrasts from bass guitar and drums supports the fast appeal of this one), “Mutilation Day” (very good Thrash Metal-like riffing and arrangements of the guitars), “Cadaverous Hordes” (another fast attack with good guttural death growls that can be better in the future), “The Tombcrusher”, “Out of Sanity”, “Glory to the Rotten” (some very good slow moments can be heard on this one, putting the band’s Thrash Metal influences clear), “Born in a Morgue” (here some of their Hardcore traces are heard), “Feeding on Fear” and “In Service of the Dead” (another massive assault of blast beats id hear here) are fine examples of how keeping things classic, but without copying other band’s music.

“In Service of the Dead” is a good work that shows that SENTIENT HORROR has a lot to offer, but they need to sail into deeper waters to do so.