Sentenced - The Trooper
Review: This EP came out between albums and contains one song from "North From Here" plus two older songs, one in the style of the first album and another in a slightly different take of the style of the previous album. The centerpiece of the EP however is the cover tune for which it is named, in which Sentenced show off their technical competence and play a confident and rational cover which does not attempt more stylistic increase than vocal and guitar aesthetics.
"Desert By Night" leads after the Iron Maiden cover, and similar to the band covered, is of melodic neo-classical heavy metal roots and aspirations to grandeur, yet renders an ornate, gothic, romantic and NWOBHM-influenced style into the chaos around it. A piano sweeps romanticism in resonant tones throughout structure. The next song, "In Memoriam," is the lead-footed clamp-handed death metal of "Shadows from the Past" with improved technical ability and more focused study of tempo. It is communicative but little else and the excellent "Awaiting the Winter Frost" from "North From Here" closes the EP, suspending an ambience long after the speech of music.