Sentenced is a metal band formed by guitarists Sami Lopakka and Miika Tenkula and drummer Vesa Ranta. The year was 1989 and place Oulu, Finland. In 1990 vocalist-bassist Taneli Jarva also joined the band. At first the band made a couple of demo tapes, until in 1991 the first full-length Sentenced album "Shadows Of The Past" was released. Their music style at that time was fast, pure death metal. Style didn't change considerably on their next two releases, "North From Here" and mini-cd "The Trooper", both released in 1993.

In 1995 the band made its real breakthrough with "Amok", still considered as the crown jewel of Sentenced's repertoire by many. Compared with earlier albums the music was slower, more melodic and Jarva's vocal working had matured greatly. The band's next release, "Love & Death" mini-cd, mainly kept on same concept. As soon as Sentenced had achieved a fine foothold on melodic death metal markets, Jarva surprised fans by leaving the band (and later found The Black League).

Deep-voiced Jarva was replaced by much more cleaner singing Ville Laihiala and Sami Kukkohovi was to become the band's bass player. The new line-up made its debut on hit album "Down" in 1996. Once again, the band's music had became much more melodic. The fifth full-length Sentenced album, "Frozen", was much like their previous release.

In recent years, Sentenced has lost some of its hardcore death metal fans but has been conquering new fields of music and attained new fans. "Crimson" and particularly "The Cold White Light" can be called more mainstream than the earlier albums. The band's music style has become something like gothic metal/rock.

2005 the band announced that the album "The Funeral Album" will be the last.

Current Line-up

• Ville Laihiala - Vocals
• Miika Tenkula - Guitar
• Sami Lopakka - Guitar
• Sami Kukkohovi - Bass
• Vesa Ranta - Drums

Discography

• When Death Join Us demo (1990)
• Rotting Ways To Misery demo (1991)
• Shadows Of The Past (1991)
• Journey To Pohjola demo (1992)
• North From Here (1993)
• The Trooper MCD (1993)
• Amok (1995)
• Love & Death MCD (1995)
• Down (1996)
• Frozen (1998)
• Killing Me, Killing You CDS (1999)
• Crimson (2000)
• No One There CDS (2002)
• The Cold White Light (2002)
• Routasydän CDS (2003)
• The Funeral Album (2005)

External links

• Official site