Sentient Horror - In Service of the Dead

Angry Metal Guy 60

From the lush, verdant meadowlands of New Jersey seeps the toxic terrors of caveman death dealers Sentient Horror. Featuring members of Heads for the Dead, Reeking Aura, and Dead and Dripping, these thuggish cretins have been hurling their vulgar takes on vintage HM-2 Entombed-core at the morgue wall since 2016 and a lot of it stuck. 2016s Ungodly Forms channeled the early days of Edge of Sanity on an enjoyably crushing opus, and 2022s Rites of Gore saw them pollute the Swedeath with American influences of the least evolved variety. Fourth album In Service of the Dead sees Sentient Horror experimenting with thrash and NWoBHM elements to further diversify their user-unfriendy sound. Rest assured that the end product is still vein-bursting, bone-breaking death metal with nary a trace of grace or decorum. But can it be of service to the living?

Opener “The Way of Decay” is one of the best death chestnuts I’ve heard in 2024, coming at you like a honey badger with double rabies and an empty belly. It’s savage and unstoppable noise with buzzing guitars slashing and slicing in all directions as nasty death roars and thundering drums pound you into the mafia-filled mud bog outside Jets/Giants Stadium. It’s a Swedeath spectacle paying tribute to the early days of the Stockholm sound and it will murderize your sensibilities. “Undead Mutation” keeps things hurtful with a bit of American groove and power chug arriving for support. The chorus hits hard and Sentient Horror are in top form. Across the album, songs are kept nasty, bruising, and short, hitting and running like a fleet of unregistered deathmobiles. “Cadaverous Hordes” is a high point, with gloriously thrashed-out death antics that approach grind levels of intensity. It’s pounding, ravenous death with frantically escalating riffwork and zero fucks given and it can trigger a severe panic attack. I also appreciate the vague similarities to prime Sepultura that crop up on the back end.

The commitment to thrashing death keeps things sticking and moving and the glory days of Swedeath still live large in the writing. “Born in the Morgue” is like 1990s Entombed trying to channel the sleaze-scuzz of Autopsy, and the title track could have appeared on Left Hand Path and fit in as snug as a slug in a bed sore. The album’s tight 37 minutes with songs all in the 3-4 minute window mean things move fast. While not every song is a title contender, none are bad or skippable and there’s no trace of fat or bloat to be found. All that said, the front half is more stacked with killers, and by the halfway point you start to get the feeling the material is a tad one-note, though that note is quite entertaining. Despite claims of an infusion of NWoBHM influences, I don’t hear much of that in the material. The thrash is there in spades, however. The production is a bit muddy and not in that cool murky way. Rather, it hits more like a thick wall of sound. I much prefer the mastering on Rites of Gore and their prior works.

Matthew Molite (Heads for the Dead) and Jon Lopez demonstrate a keen understanding of the Swedeath sound and clearly love the classic Sunlight Studio releases by Entombed and Dismember. They bring the HM-2 buzz thunder to all the nooks and crannies of the album and do it violent justice. The burly riffage is always good and sometimes great, while the solo work is often impressive. Molite’s death croaks are industry standard but completely effective. He’s more Corpsegrinder than L.G. Petrov this time, but you won’t hear me complaining. I will gripe about the bass work of TJ Coon (Reeking Aura) being all but completely washed away by the overly loud mix, submerged under the drums and vocals. Production missteps aside, these gents know what they’re all about and how to deliver the body bags and bloody rags.

Sentient Horror are the picture of a competent hard-working death metal act with all the requisite cargo shorts and beards. On every album, you get a few extra intense blasts from the lungs of Hell and a bunch of enjoyable grave nuggets that fall just shy of playlist-worthy. The same holds true on In Service of the Dead. You’ll never go wrong blasting an album by these New Jersey vandals, that’s for sure. Buy In Service of the Dead with confidence and get laid to waste in the moist and fetid swamps of the Garden State.



Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Redefining Darkness
Websites: sentienthorror.bandcamp.com |facebook.com/sentienthorrorofficial | instagram.com/sentienthorrorofficial
Releases Worldwide: October 25th, 2024

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