The Sentient - Progressive Metal - Kernow, UK
Batten down the hatches and lock the doors, my friends, because the UK’s The Sentient has returned with a brand new full length album this past week, which, if you haven’t heard it, is the perfect finale to the amazing year that 2013 has been for music. All the way back in January, I found myself enjoying the band’s “Feel” EP, but that was clearly just a clever tease for the juggernaut that “Promises” was to be. So grab some headphones and head over to The Sentient’s Bandcamp with me today. Let’s cap off the year in style.
Tightening and improving up on nearly all aspects that made The Sentient so great on their earlier material, “Promises” is eleven tracks of blistering and schizophrenic progressive metal, perpetually raging with itself between ambient and discordant soundscapes. “Batten Down the Hatches” is certainly a fitting beginning to the album, but “We’ll Consume Ourselves” is really the first proper introduction to the metal monster that The Sentient has become in the past twelve months. In all of their progressive glory, the verses blast you in the face with arbitrary and surprising pauses that I couldn’t ever hope to understand or count, even after weeks of work, and the creativity is nearly unmatchable throughout. A breakdown composed entirely of guitar scratches? I’ll bet you never thought of that, and I’ll equally bet you won’t even be able to contain yourself once it actually kicks in.
The aforementioned battle between metal and melody is as palpable as ever, with skillful tradeoffs taking place on “Hard Thoughts” and “Liason” as the vocalist quickly shifts back and forth between strong clean singing and screaming. Most heavy bands who attempt both of these generally excel at one and settle for mediocrity in the other, but these UK metal alchemists fortunately have the chops to succeed equally in each. The Sentient’s skill to segue seamlessly between these two vastly different styles will never cease to impress me.
Those gravitating toward music of the heavier ilk will certainly find much to enjoy on “Promises” (see “Through the Eyes of a Broken Man…” and “The Cost of Cohesion”), but to overlook some of the more diverse sections would be to miss the point of The Sentient entirely. Snippets of ambient/shoegaze material weave their way into the opening and conclusion of “Liason”, wetting your palette for an extended near-drone section in “No Words”, which sits perfectly right at the album’s midpoint. The melodic guitar opening “In Circles Pt. II”, (a wonderful callback to “In Circles,” released earlier this year), will satisfy any true progressive music fan, equally representative of both a good melody and a heavy counterpart.
The Sentient has crafted a very impressive release with “Promises” that sticks around long enough to showcase all of the band’s talents, but doesn’t overstay its welcome. Clocking in at just over 32 minutes, “Promises” is an absolute pristine offering of independent progressive music, proving the skills without requiring the oft-expected extended investment. Of course, now knowing how capable the band is, I’m expecting (and hoping for) a one hour concept album next time around, and if it’s anywhere near half as good as “Promises”, it looks like we'll be seeing The Sentient at the top.
Listen to "Promises" on Bandcamp:
http://thesentient.bandcamp.com/album/promises
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/TheSentientUK
By: Max Puhala
Tightening and improving up on nearly all aspects that made The Sentient so great on their earlier material, “Promises” is eleven tracks of blistering and schizophrenic progressive metal, perpetually raging with itself between ambient and discordant soundscapes. “Batten Down the Hatches” is certainly a fitting beginning to the album, but “We’ll Consume Ourselves” is really the first proper introduction to the metal monster that The Sentient has become in the past twelve months. In all of their progressive glory, the verses blast you in the face with arbitrary and surprising pauses that I couldn’t ever hope to understand or count, even after weeks of work, and the creativity is nearly unmatchable throughout. A breakdown composed entirely of guitar scratches? I’ll bet you never thought of that, and I’ll equally bet you won’t even be able to contain yourself once it actually kicks in.
The aforementioned battle between metal and melody is as palpable as ever, with skillful tradeoffs taking place on “Hard Thoughts” and “Liason” as the vocalist quickly shifts back and forth between strong clean singing and screaming. Most heavy bands who attempt both of these generally excel at one and settle for mediocrity in the other, but these UK metal alchemists fortunately have the chops to succeed equally in each. The Sentient’s skill to segue seamlessly between these two vastly different styles will never cease to impress me.
Those gravitating toward music of the heavier ilk will certainly find much to enjoy on “Promises” (see “Through the Eyes of a Broken Man…” and “The Cost of Cohesion”), but to overlook some of the more diverse sections would be to miss the point of The Sentient entirely. Snippets of ambient/shoegaze material weave their way into the opening and conclusion of “Liason”, wetting your palette for an extended near-drone section in “No Words”, which sits perfectly right at the album’s midpoint. The melodic guitar opening “In Circles Pt. II”, (a wonderful callback to “In Circles,” released earlier this year), will satisfy any true progressive music fan, equally representative of both a good melody and a heavy counterpart.
The Sentient has crafted a very impressive release with “Promises” that sticks around long enough to showcase all of the band’s talents, but doesn’t overstay its welcome. Clocking in at just over 32 minutes, “Promises” is an absolute pristine offering of independent progressive music, proving the skills without requiring the oft-expected extended investment. Of course, now knowing how capable the band is, I’m expecting (and hoping for) a one hour concept album next time around, and if it’s anywhere near half as good as “Promises”, it looks like we'll be seeing The Sentient at the top.
Listen to "Promises" on Bandcamp:
http://thesentient.bandcamp.com/album/promises
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/TheSentientUK
By: Max Puhala