SENTIENT Deliver Hard Hitting Barrage Of Brutality With New EP "Long Live Sentient"

"Long Live Sentient" is out now [photo: Sentient]

After 2023's "Sentient is Dead" EP, SENTIENT have been slowly working away at their next 'chapter'. The chapter in question? "Long Live Sentient" - half companion piece, half statement, this signals a breath of fresh air and a revitalised hunger for the Hertfordshire metallers.

'Volition' kicks things off. A dissonant alarm sound, and then heavy riffs, toeing the line between djent and something more proggier. Starting with a six minute song may be a bold choice, but it leaves the right impression: Sentient aren't fucking around.

Faster, more thrashier riffs take the stage in band favourite 'Clarity', but there is still plenty here on offer to whet the appetite of deathcore fans. The vocals here particularly shine.

The instrumentation throughout is incredibly hard hitting and effective - the band are refined in their craft, which shows in the finished product.

The brutality doesn't stop, with "Blood For Blood", throwing you straight in there with blast beats and a couple of sustained growls. By this point, your nan would probably be looking at you wondering what hell you have unleashed on her ears. The prog sound from earlier returns in full force here, a breakdown that is both headbanging worthy and difficult to count in equal measure.

The EP takes a slight detour with "In The Absence of Love", an almost cinematic, melancholic piece of songwriting. Instrumentally, this is where things are most different, sounding more like something out of 28 Days Later than anything Sentient has done up till now. It provides brief respite from the sonic assault so far.

It's all smiles really... [photo: Sentient]

The EP ends in style though, as listeners are quickly brought back into the frantic blasting and low tuned chugs, with EP closer "A New Kind of Hate".

By the time the EP has finished, you're left feeling its beating. This is a cohesive slab of technical brutality; if Sentient aren't already on your radar, they really should be after this. The road ahead is incredibly fruitful, and this is just the beginning.

"Long Live Sentient" is out NOW on streaming platforms