Shadows of the Past

Shadows of the Past is the debut by Sentenced, formed in Muhos in northern Finland. Released in 1991, it plays raw, primitive death metal akin to Death, Obituary and Bolt Thrower. It is also the only album with guitarist Miika Tenkula on lead vocals. The band began in 1988 as Deformity, renaming itself Sentenced the following year, in 1989. At the time, their style was typical European death metal. Cold riffs and a heavy air of death cover the whole record, while melancholic melodies that hint at what would come surface here and there. Dull, weighty songs like "When the Moment of Death Arrives," "Under the Suffer" and "Rot to Dead" line up. It was recorded at Tico-Tico Studio in northern Finland. Its first pressing was only 2,000 copies, but it is remembered as a rough record heralding the dawn of Finnish death metal. It was reissued by Century Media in 1995, reaching a wider audience.