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Ceremonial Murder introduces us to a skilled band that mixes elements from Death Metal, Thrash Metal and Black Metal, in which the main emphasis is laid on heavy, crushing walls of riffs, accompanied by merciless skin beating. Sentient sound well-rehearsed as their songs tend to flow pretty nicely, the guys clearly having a good ear for song arrangements. Two members provide two different vocal styles, with guitarist Edmund doing the shrieking, Black Metal type vocals and bassist Ranjit growling a bit here and there to offer a stronger backbone for the band's fierce but still kind of melodic Death/Thrash assaults. As far as Ed's solo work is concerned, it's almost a carbon copy of Kerry King's style, which is a cool thing in my book.

This six-track effort from Calgary-based Sentient shows great promise, so I will definitely keep my ears open and alert for their next release, which hopefully will be another full-length.