S E N T I N E L
Sentinel is our progressive metal concept album of a fictional story written loosely based on ancient samurai culture where each song is a sequence of the overall story. It’s about the journey of a sentinel through different dimensions of space and time to retrieve the Mortal Blade so he can return home. See below for the story behind each song!
D E T H R O N E D
As dawn rises in the samurai kingdom, a loud scream is heard in the emperor's chambers. People run in to discover that the emperor had been assassinated in his sleep. Confusion and chaos settle in the kingdom as people are unsure how exactly the king got assassinated. Rumors settle in that a high guard with the title of sentinel was the closest and had the easiest access to the king. As the rumors seem to spread the sentinel is called into the emperor's chambers for questioning. As the sentinel arrives, he is in shock and awe at the death of the emperor whom he was sworn to protect and who was a good friend. Shocked with grief, the sentinel blames himself for the emperor's death and is swallowed in grief. Stepping in for the role of the emperor after his death, the shogun reprimand's the sentinel for his failure to guard the emperor:
"Now that the crimson tide has receded, the blood of your king is on your hands. Your oath remains broken and your honor washed away. With the last vestiges of pride left in you, journey forth to the realm of fire and bring me the mortal blade. This mission will be your death. Leave this world for a chance to regain your honor, sentinel."
Broken and swallowed in grief, the sentinel accepts his fate and vows to do anything and everything in his power to return the honor he had lost from his failure.
B E T R A Y E D
As the Sentinel lays awake for his last day in the mortal realm, he takes time to think about how the emperor really could have died. After realizing who could have benefited from the death of the emperor he turns his attention to the man who was once his old mentor and friend: the shogun. The sentinel realizes that the shogun had murdered the emperor so he could assume the command of the emperor and had planned to blame the responsibility and punishment for his death on the sentinel. Since the sentinel was so blinded by grief and agony, the sentinel hadn't realized this until it was too late and he was already sentenced to be guilty. Feeling betrayed by the very teacher who had trained him, the sentinel swears revenge on the shogun when he returns from the realm of fire with the mortal blade.
T H E R I F T
Guards escort the sentinel to the punishment for his crimes: an interdimensional portal in the caves under the kingdom. Little is known about what lies beyond the portal, but ancient legend rumors of an immensely powerful weapon called the "Mortal Blade" that can rip through the fabric of space and time and give someone the powers of a god. Many prisoners have been sent through the portal never to return (presumably to their death). As the sentinel steps through the portal, he is blasted through space and time. As his body is stretched into many different shapes, he feels as though he is falling endlessly as lights flash and colors change around him. Still, though, the sentinel remains determined to continue forward, retrieve the mortal blade and return home.
R E A L M O F F I R E
The sentinel finally arrives through the portal to a barren wasteland. Immediately after he enters he feels a blistering heat over his body, almost like the whole world he has entered is on fire. In his first couple steps he trips on the bones of previous prisoners of the kingdom: many of whom did not seem to make it very far. The air is almost black and suffocating seeming filled with some kind of poison. Through all of the pain, he hears something calling him. It almost seems connected to the anger he feels toward the Shogun. He marches on through his pain in hopes that he will find the find the mortal blade and return home.
T A K A M A G A H A R A
Crawling through the realm of fire, the sentinel makes his way to a towering ethereal palace. Runes on the side of the palace mark "Takamagahara" otherwise known as the kingdom of the gods. The sentinel feels a glimmer of hope in his heart as he can feel he is making progress in his journey to find the mortal blade. He steps to the gate only to find several guards blocking his way. With nothing to lose and everything to gain, the sentinel fights his way through the guards through the center of the palace. Desperate to complete his quest and travel back home, he slays all guards in his path treating them almost as lesser beings. All while doing so he feels something taunting him and calling him in the main chamber of the palace.
K A G U T S U C H I
As the sentinel makes his way into the main chamber of the palace, he enters a large room filled with magma, fire, and flame. He sees a large creature that almost looks like a dragon fully engulfed in fire. He recognizes this beast from legends he had heard of as a child: the god of fire - Kagutsuchi. He challenges the god to a battle for the legendary weapon the mortal blade. The beast accepts and the battle begins.
The battle begins as the sentinel lunges away from the beast's attacks. The sentinel manages to get some blows in with his katana which makes the beast enraged. He launches an attack at the sentinel which completely misses and breaks the wall behind the warrior. Behind the stone of the wall is revealed the weapon the sentinel was searching for: the mortal blade. To avoid the sentinel running and grabbing the weapon the god of fire cracks and breaks the floor they stand on. As they fight and fall through the air, the sentinel manages to stab the beast in a major artery near the stomach- dealing a lethal blow. As they land in the depths below, the sentinel pulls the sword from the stomach and pushes it into the god's eye ensuring the beast's death. After killing the beast, the sentinel celebrates his victory by declaring a newly rising sun and a newly discovered hope for his future.
M O R T A L B L A D E
After finally completing the quest to retrieve the Mortal Blade, the sentinel feels a glimmer of hope that he may return home and return to his normal life. He walks over and grabs his new treasure, his final ticket to get back home. As soon as the blade touches his hands, he feels something strange come over him. It almost feels as though the blade has entered his mind and was talking to him. Suddenly, the sentinel begins to feel immobilized. Whispers and dark thoughts flood his mind and persuade him to follow his rage and give in to a path of darkness. Helpless to resist their power and persuasion, the sentinel accepts his fate. The remnants of what he once was have faded away as he completes his transformation into a vessel for the will of the blade: an entity designed to create havoc and destruction and kill all those in his path.
T H E V E S S E L
Fully under the control of the mortal blade, the sentinel feels as though he is a complete slave to the blade's desires. Powerless to stop the thoughts he has, he gives in to this anger and hatred that seems to be fueled by this ultimate power.
With the mortal blade, the sentinel rips a hole through space and time. Through this, he travels back to his home. The villagers are astounded to see him as they had completely assumed he died. As they walk over to greet him, they notice something different about him - something that seems wrong. Suddenly the sentinel looks up with bloodshot eyes. He has only one thought in his mind - to kill the Shogun who sentenced him to death and any who stand in his way. As villagers block him from entering the palace so he may not do something he may regret, he cuts them down - taking innocent lives with no sense of remorse. Hypnotized by the idea of revenge, the sentinel kills every man, woman, or child he sees on his way to the emperor's main chamber.
E N T H R O N E D
Approaching the doors of the emperor's main chamber, the sentinel proclaims his path to rule the kingdom as the new deity after he gets his revenge. Just before he enters the emperor's chambers, however, he hears a voice buried in his mind. The conscience of the person he once was reminds him that he is tearing down his home, slaughtering the people he once cared about. The sentinel battles in his mind between the rage he has for revenge and the guilt that he feels for what he has done. On one hand, he thinks, all these people had just stood by as he was wrongly accused and sentenced to death. On the other, what kind of kingdom would he rule over if he became the very thing he sought to destroy? With the persuasion of the mortal blade pushing his mind so strongly to the path of destruction, he finds himself swallowed in rage, succumbing to anger, destruction, and revenge.
At long last, the sentinel finally meets his old mentor: the Shogun. The Shogun smugly tells the sentinel that he is unable to handle the power of the mortal blade seeing as it so easily corrupted his mind. He gives one final proposal that if the sentinel hands the mortal blade to him, he will spare his life. He tells the sentinel that he is weak: not strong enough to hold the power of the mortal blade and not strong enough to protect the emperor.
Infuriated with rage, the sentinel comes to a major realization: the mortal blade had never corrupted his mind at all. The actions of the Shogun and the pain he had suffered had been the driver for the destruction he had caused. Accepting that this is who has become through the anguish he has faced, the sentinel cuts off the shogun's head with a smile. The sentinel stands outside the chambers and holds up the shogun's head as a sign - the sentinel is now the ruler of the kingdom and any who dare stand in his way will be executed.
Sometime after assuming the throne, the sentinel reflects on his journey. He knows that the actions he had done had relinquished any honor he once had. While the revenge he had gotten seemed to quench his anger at the time, it had now left him feeling empty and hollow. He realizes that the evil he swore to destroy during his entire journey was the same evil that he had now created by assuming the throne. The sentinel continues his rule of fear over the kingdom, continuing the cycle of pain and suffering in the quest for royalty.
