Style: Hard driving rock
Primary Emotions/Themes: Staring into the void, realizing it's extending it's hand to you and gladly taking that hand
Thoughts: Finally, finally the band put out something worth while. After so many years of staying in mediocrity the band finally put something out that catches my attention.
The Cold White Light may very well be my favorite Sentenced album with Ville on vocals. Down was good but a bit disjointed, Frozen and Crimson were lifeless except for Dead Moon Rising. With The Cold White Light the band finally found some life in their music and they made it consistent through the entire album.
To start off the intro feels like its from a doom metal album. Cool, but not really a good representation of the music that's in the album. When Cross My Heart and Hope to Die starts off the riff sounds like a direct continuation of Crimson. A hollow and lifeless sound. This is broken up slightly by Ville's vocals, he's got more life in it (the irony of this is not lost on me), more urgency. Everything changes though once the chorus comes in.
The band explodes in with a thicc guitar tone and Ville's pained vocals come out full force. This is the moment in the album that I took notice, and I wondered if things really had changed. I can't stress enough how different this is compared to what came before... it's like a completely different band. They found something with this album that was not there before... they figured something out.
A few major things are different with this album compared to the last few. One the riffs actually feel like they matter. They are written with purpose. The production matches this, instead of the guitars having little to no punch to them, on this album the production upper cuts me right in the jaw. The guitars and bass DEMAND to be listened to.
The melodies also feel like they are more inspired. In the aforementioned Cross My Heart... the guitar leads weep off of the guitar strings. There is true sorrow here, not the boo hoo stuff that was on the last few albums. Again, it's like two separate bands.
It's hard to quantify how good this album is. I know I'm biased because I had been wanting to like this band for years and I just... couldn't. So when they finally released this thing I was a bit more than excited, I was giddy. It blew me away. Not only because of the album itself, but also that which came before it. If there is only one album to get with Ville on vocals, this is the one to get.
Written April 2nd 2024
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