Black Breath   

Sentenced To Life

Southern Lord 2012

Down-tuned hardcore bastards Black Breath have returned once more to set the underground on fire.  Sentenced to Life is a truly scorching album, that uses a two-pronged assault of aggression and heaviness to leave nothing unscathed.  Right from the outset you know these guys mean business.  Feast of the damned is a no-holds-barred mutation of Swedish death metal and intense hardcore.  Screamed hardcore vocals punish you while you are battered by muddy death metal riffs and a hardcore tempo.  The title-track picks up immediately where that one ends combining the negativity of Sheer Terror with Stockholm riffs.  A total mosh breakdown hits you in the face like a hammer as the song draws towards its conclusion.  A characteristic Swedish rhythm is underpinned by a hammering drum line on Forced Into Possession.  And this song also makes you take note of the relentlessness of the songwriting.  These tracks just grab you by the throat and never give you a moment's respite.  Just as a say that, Home of The Grave strolls in with its thick rhythms and midtempo pacing.  To draw an even sharper comparison there is a set of riffs breaks at the 2:10 mark that brings to mind Entombed's Chaos Breed.  Mammoth riffs roll in like a storm cloud after some sorrowful, crystalline guitar on Endless Corpse.  And then all hell breaks loose!  Insane speed and anger hammer away at your skull and then a distinctly Stockholm melody rushes through the song like a gracefully dying swan.  Meanwhile some Slayer-ish guitarwork gets things underway on The Flame.  The track simmers with rage, like a vigilante with a lead pipe, just waiting to strike.  With Sentenced To Life picture Clandestine era Entombed as a hardcore band and you'll have a pretty good idea of the carnage this album will wreak upon your ears.  Black Breath have once again crafted a violent affair that is sure to leave you a shattered shell of your former self.  The best album of their career so far.