Sentenced’s classic album North From Here opens with its most aggressive song “My Sky Is Darker Than Thine” that features a breakdown as an important compositional tool. While brutality and aggression aren’t elements associated with Sentenced nor European death metal in general, Sentenced use it as a contrasting tool for cathartic displays of emotion. Instead of relying on complex rhythmic patterns, Sentenced focus on the proper use of dissonance to create tension.
This breakdown exists completely within the diminished scale which possesses many ambiguous qualities that create tension. Yngwie Malmsteen popularized its use with fast licks that begged for for some consonance to resolve it all. Here the band don’t rely on a fast lick to create tension but simple melodies with carefully chosen notes.
At first the guitars play a simple two note tremolo picked riff consisting of the riff’s root note and the infamous tritone to create tension. The band then repeat this pattern but from the tritone they ascend to another tritone and this ends up being the octave of the root note that gives purpose to this passage and contextualizes the dissonance by returning to stability by descending further into chaos instead of sloppily trying to impose consonance through other means.
The defining part of this entire passage is the use of eighth note triplets in contrast to the tremolo picking. Melodically this part is virtually identical to its predecessor but it’s shifted down by a half step which creates a lot of tension between the two parts because of the implied dissonance but also because it fits into the diminished scale whose entire purpose is to create tension.
While the rhythm isn’t syncopated, the fact that only the root note is palm muted, shifts perception of the timing as it occurs on the end of each of the first three beats. The resolution of the tritones feels delayed and that makes each palm muted note much more satisfying due to the anticipation. In reality this resolution should only be thought as a partial resolution because of how the band ensure to end the part on two chromatic notes that dissipate any ideas of fully returning to stability within the overall riff.
What occurs after can be summed up as the same ideas but moved up an octave before eventually harmonising those variations to create even more tension without any superfluous dissonance or distracting arrangements. This entire passage occurs many times within the song and creates so much tension for the surrounding melodic riffs to shine even more. while dissonance has become a tired and forced meme for bands who aren’t capable of writing engaging riffs or songs, Sentenced masterfully weave into this piece. There is no dissonance for the sake of dissonance but rather a compositional that enriches the cathartic breakdown of this song.
