ALBUM REVIEW: Sentient Horror – Morbid Realms

After the resounding popularity from their debut album and since an EP, also fresh from touring, SENTIENT HORROR are back with their sophomore album of morbid Death Metal. Coming on November 29th via Redefining Darkness Records (USA) and Testimony Records (Europe).

Blasting away with ferocious drums under tremolo picked riffs, the Swedeath style filth is immediately brilliant and abrasive, as are the violent vocals rasped hastily over the saw-tooth guitar and drum assault. There is excellent use of slower sections that add a monolith of doomy sludge to the breakneck barrages, often accentuated with soaring lead melodies to add to the atmospheric side of the music. While often a blistering cacophony of horror and morbidity, there is an incredibly well thought out and melodic side that shows Sentient Horror consists of excellent musicians but these parts stay in keep with the music, never becoming obnoxious or annoying, offering total barbarity and brutality with utmost consistency throughout the record. The mid-tempo riffing is very reminiscent of Bolt Thrower, never a bad thing in Death Metal, nor something that ever becomes less effective than it was back in the day. Crawling along with a diverse mix in tempo, ideas and sounds, Sentient Horror give us a bit of everything and make it work so marvellously and coherently in a fashion akin to a well sharpened spearhead, pounding right through your skull with their meaty blend of Death Metal aggression. Each track is indeed a fine offering at the altar of death, generally following from the last with precision and tension that grows throughout. Overall this album stays in line with the others in the more Swedish style of old school Death Metal worship and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, Sentient Horror do a killer job at both nailing this classic sound but also creating a pretty memorable experience in a genre some may say is oversaturated. Fans of Dismember, Entombed, Feral, Organic and Burial Remains will definitely adore this pounding slab of HM-2 fuelled grooves, thunderous drums, spewed vocals and chainsaw riffing, I certainly did! -8/10