Sentenced 2 Die - No Reason to Live EP (2021)

Sentenced 2 Die are fairly fresh meat in that hybrid scene of death metal hardcore/beatdown acts, but they're already showing a steady increase in songwriting potential beyond some of their competitors. No Reason to Live was an independently released EP, clocking in at under 11 minutes, which showcased their potential, and was enough to land the group a deal with the fitting Maggot Stomp imprint, and it's a solid pairing since this material is likely to please fans of comparable acts. I'd say that Ohio's Sanguisugabogg is a pretty close style to this, other than the lyrical themes, which don't skew here to the same humorous or perverse level, but more a degree of traditional horror/nihilism and social issues. The four tracks here are a little rough around the edges, but sort of like those earlier Creeping Death EPs, there's an appreciable, ominous bludgeoning vibe that works.

The formula is fairly simple, focused in on slower grooving riffs that are interspersed with tremolo picking, double bass bombardments and a lot of low-end heaviness, reinforced by the rather deep and often monotonous guttural that creates its own atmosphere not above, but burrowed within the rumbling instruments. The rhythm guitar tone is tight but saturated in the fat bass, so they almost combine into one unified blunt force that bounces cautiously up and down like your body hitting and skipping off the pavement in slow-mo. The guitars pop and squeal, little measures of brutality that keep the thick riffs a little more involved than they might have been, but the centerpiece is almost always the walls of mosh pit chugging as in "Life Devoured" where you can just feel the growling erupting about a foot over the pit, bodies flailing around you as they ninja windmill or whatever the fuck kids call it these last few decades.

Hasn't been my scene since the 90s, but even I feel motivated to move when I hear some of these grooves, just because of the enormous production emphasis. However, the sheer heaviness here is just not enough, and I feel like these songs weren't developed with much thought or intricacy, rather to establish the band as a steady steamroller and please a crowd. It's effective enough when you're in its grasp, but there's little to nothing memorable about this material, especially when placing it up against the vastly superior debut full-length to follow. That said, No Reason to Live lays enough groundwork that you can tell if this is something you're going to relate to, and if you're into a lot of the other caveman death metal mavens on this label, this might land for you more than it did for me, as I was more into some of the other EPs by the peers I mentioned above.

Verdict: Indifference [6.25/10]

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