I’ve reviewed my fair share of Sentient Horror releases and have seen this New Jawsey HM-2 Swedish-inspired death metal band live after their outstanding Ungodly Forms debut album.  I still feel their debut is by far their best release and their other releases have been good and well-received by the fans.

Their last album, their third one, from 2022  Rites of Gore, I reviewed and while I enjoyed it, I kinda felt the production was lacking as well as some of the memorability.  The band has returned with their fourth album and In Service of the Dead actually boasts a much stouter and fuller production overall.  There is some interesting recording information I discovered regarding the album.  The material on this is actually close to a year old.  It was recorded in 2023 and the album was mixed and mastered in January 2024.  I am unsure of the delay in the album release.  It could be that the gents have many other projects going on in the music world as well as their personal lives.  The newest member is TJ Coon on bass, joining the band last year.  Having the staple pretty much intact since 2016 with Matt Moliti on Guitars, Vocals/ Jon Lopez – Guitars and Evan Daniele – Drums helps the band continuity as the band knows what it likes and knows how to play this style of death metal quite well.

10 songs in 37 minutes “The Way of Decay” starts immediately with the bashing drums and mid-paced guitars carving our faces off into oblivion.  The song jumps into a classic gallop as Matt’s vocals come phasing in, right as the blast beats soon take center stage.  The song slows back down then right into the full force velocity.  The guitars are really dense on this regarding and I would say the best guitar tone the band has had since their crushing debut.  There’s some cool guitar soloing happening at the end with the strings whammied out at the end to signify a tempo shift.  Boom-right into the blast beat and the song ends pretty intensely.  Great opening song – it packs a wallop!!

No time to breathe as “Undead Mutation” begins with an extraordinary blast beat – it’s ruthless.  Matt’s raspy deep vocals are on full display and he pretty much just uses this tone throughout the album.  The vocals are a tad high in the mix.  The guitars sound so freakin’ awesome on this album, they should have received a slight bump in volume.  There are a few times the vocals are pretty loud in the mix.  The music gets more breathing room, when devoid of vocals.  There are some crushing mid-paced moments and that rhythm section is bludgeoning.  After these moments some nifty guitar solos start swirling around our heads once again.   This is an intense song and I enjoy the slower moments since the riffage is catchy and memorable.

I always love when bands end an album on a high note and not a whimper.  The title song ends the album ferociously with monster blasts and Matt lets loose on some very cool growls.  The galloping moments are classick!  There are enough tempo shifts happening to balance the faster sections.  The song is intense, it does whizz by fast and that’s my summation of In Service of the Dead, from Sentient Horror.

The band can write good Swedish-inspired death metal and while I prefer this album to their last one, maybe a few tweaks here and there could help the band stand out a little further.  Maybe another vocal tone added in the future as well as spending some extra time crafting more memorable riffs and songs.  The album cover rules and again while this is a good album, I just want more memorable moments from the band.

[Visit the band's website]

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