Sanctuary - The Year The Sun Died

Published OCtober 08 2014

*=Staff's pick	Arise And Purify Let The Serpent Follow Me* Exitium (Anthem Of The Living)* Question Existence Fading I Am Low* Frozen* One Final Day (Sworn To Believe) The World Is Wired The Dying Age Ad Vitam Aeternam The Year The Sun Died

Genre	Heavy Metal	Warrel Dane	Vocals
Tracks	11	Lenny Rutledge	Guitar
Running time	50 Min.	Brad Hull	Guitar
Label	Century Media	Jim Sheppard	Bass
Release	06 October 2014	Dave Budbill	Drums
Country	USA	-	Keyboard
Producer	Zeuss
Similar artists	Nevermore

Sanctuary releases its first album in 25 years, with an almost intact lineup, only seeing Brad Hull replacing Sean Blosl on guitars. Vocalist Warrel Dane and bass player Jim Sheppard have spent most of their time in the band Nevermore, but when that outfit went on hiatus or even split up a few years ago, a resurrection of the old band was pretty much the obvious choice.

Since Nevermore back in the day was more or less a natural follow-up to Sanctuary, it comes as no surprise that The Year The Sun Died now travels back in the opposite direction. I would say that the melodies are more similar to what Nevermore has achieved, whilst the riffs and the overall performance end up somewhere between both units. Anyway it's definitely a great effort with killing empathy from Dane and with such a great singer like him, this album is naturally set out to bring forth the magnificent and crushing tones in his voice.

The band is really able to get the mood going, whether the sections are heavy, more mellow, dark or smooth. It has a little of everything and in my opinion this release definitely outruns what this unit presented in the past with its first pair of albums. They fire up on all cylinders and also attack each song differently, yet still within their margins. I really dig this heavy shit and I assure you that the boys definitely still have the ability to create captivating and massive, yet melodic, songs.