Sanctuary - The Year The Sun Died - review
Sanctuary - The Year The Sun Died - review
Tracklist
01. Arise And Purify02. Let The Serpent Follow Me
03. Exitium (Anthem Of The Living)
04. Question Existence Fading
05. I Am Low
06. Frozen
07. One Final Day (Sworn To Believe)
08. The World is Wired
09. The Dying Age
10. Ad Vitam Aeternam
11. The Year The Sun Died
12. Waiting For The Sun [The Doors cover] [bonus]
A review by
R'Vannith October 03, 2014
This comeback from the members of Sanctuary is an effort which forcibly attempts to recapture a sound which hasn't been touched upon for over two decades. The Year The Sun Died fails to reinstate the vigour of what will remain a two-time album affair, unless the band further develops from here and manages to find the style of their prime. An unlikely occurrence, if the maladjusted song writing demonstrated in this attempt is anything to go by.
To dissolve from the assessment any conjecture as to whether this record sounds more clearly like Nevermore or more clearly like Sanctuary: overall, it's neither. Warrel Dane's vocals clearly don't revisit arrangements of his much younger self, more closely resembling his work with Nevermore, which is essentially the only correlative component of the sound here, which he carries over, style-wise, from all of his vocal development post-Sanctuary. The performance in The Year The Sun Died is always deeper, much lower in pitch and devoid of his screeching higher notes that electrified the style of US power metal that the band is known for, most purely projected in the debut album Refuge Denied.
The guitar work here is slow and bogged down, devoid of any classically speedy Sanctuary segments and laden with well performed yet ineffective soloing, which futilely flitter on through without landing any impact that they might have had if they were delivered in a more memorable context.
Overall, the record simply doesn't carry the same tone or a similar edge that Sanctuary once had, as the thrash elements are here reduced to a less effectual groove saturated sound. Bear in mind that it's not Jeff Loomis we're hearing, who wasn't on any Sanctuary record, as he joined the band subsequent to their release and before the immanent breakup of the band. As a consequence the tone, style and structure in the instrumentation as a whole, under-represented bass work of Jim Sheppard aside, certainly can't be likened to Nevermore, and neither does it revisit the same Sanctuary sound that would be expected, in part at the very least.
If the purposes of this record were to replicate Sanctuary's two 90's efforts, The Year The Sun Died falls well short. However, if the purposes of this record were to produce something new under the renewal of the Sanctuary name, The Year The Sun Died delivers in this respect. The strength and dominance of Warrel Dane's performance here may give the impression that this is, in actuality, a "Nevermore plays Sanctuary" escapade, yet the groove riff centric focus here establishes something altogether different from either band.
That said, it's not an entirely limp record and is possessive of enough power in the rhythm section to do the band name some justice at least, but it simply doesn't live up to the Sanctuary of old.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 8 |
| Songwriting: | 6 |
| Originality: | 7 |
| Production: | 7 |
Comments
Comments:
22
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Posts: 3640  |
Posts: 3640
Sad day. At one point I was really looking forward to this, but the three songs released disappointed the hell out of me. And since this review perfectly sums up what's wrong with those three songs I can expect the rest of the album to be similar in quality. Oh well, I guess I'll check out that live EP/album thing (Into The Mirror Live) since I noticed I've never done that before. Good review though.
---- I hate bonus tracks
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Posts: 3099 Written by Zap on 03.10.2014 at 17:05 It does have some saving graces I think. One Final Day in particular sounds somewhat memorable (especially with the vocal line "Sworn to believe"), but it's the track that has the least to do with US power metal and classic Sanctuary.
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Posts: 3640 Written by R'Vannith on 03.10.2014 at 17:15 I'll keep that in mind when I give the album a spin  I'm definitely still gonna check it out, but it's safe to say my excitement has died down almost completely.Btw, any words on "Waiting For The Sun?" I'm curious how that turned out.
---- I hate bonus tracks
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Posts: 3099 Written by Zap on 03.10.2014 at 17:20 It seems like the perfect cover to do, and sits well with the record as a whole. Frankly though, it just sits at the back-end of the album without doing it, and the original, any impressionable significance really.
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Posts: 5989
Yeah, my expectations weren't really that high for this album, to be honest. Going by the terrible effort that was The Obsidian Conspiracy, as well as Warrel Dane's solo albums, clearly the guy has suffered a bit of a decline in his songwriting abilities in recent years. Comeback albums are tough, the band can either try to recreate their classic sound or go for something different. The former is usually a lot harder and more prone to result in failure, and that seems to be what happened here.
---- I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go. ~ II. VII
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Posts: 325 Written by MetalDoomMaster on 03.10.2014 at 21:49 Yeah.... Glad someone else said it first. Last time I commented on Obsidian Conspiracy around these parts I was surprised at how many people seemed to believe I was missing out on how good it was. There were even a couple posters calling it their best album, which blew my mind.
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Posts: 1116
You were pretty generous with it  it sounded lazy, they did it just to have something new and play old material live, there's no other reason for this album to see the light of the day
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Posts: 164
I'll be that guy and say I enjoyed this album, through and through. I think its a great album and I disagree on every point above.
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Posts: 11921 Written by Auntie Sahar on 03.10.2014 at 21:50 But Praises To The War Machine is a great album! I don't agree with you on that at all about Dane's solo work  The Obsidian Conspiracy was lacking indeed but that was probably due to the tensions in the band.Still haven't listened to the new Sanctuary, but I plan to soon.
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Posts: 5989 Written by BloodTears on 04.10.2014 at 12:26 I'll agree with you that it was better than TOC, but I still thought it was kinda meh.
---- I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go. ~ II. VII
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Posts: 40071 Written by Auntie Sahar on 04.10.2014 at 15:38 100% agreed, Dane's solo work is meh at best. Still wondering why they released The Year The Sun Died as a Sanctuary album and not a Nevermore one, since it has more in common musically and vocally with the last Nevermore album than with anything on the two Sanctuary albums. Pretty average album TYTSD turned out to be, so will be spinning Refuge Denied and Into The Mirror Black again, especially Into The MIrror Black which is a US power classic.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
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Posts: 5989 Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 04.10.2014 at 16:28 Yep, as I did in regards to the new Atheist album, will be sticking with their classic material for now.
---- I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go. ~ II. VII
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Posts: 40071 Written by Auntie Sahar on 04.10.2014 at 16:34 Don't even mention that Atheist album
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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Posts: 3099 Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 04.10.2014 at 16:28 Only Warrel Dane and Jim Sheppard from the musicians involved here went on to Nevermore. 3/5 members on this album haven't had anything to do with Nevermore. 4/5 are original members of Sanctuary. Despite that though, this album doesn't have the same sound they once had.
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Posts: 40071 Written by R'Vannith on 04.10.2014 at 17:00 I know that, yet they sound more like Nevermore than Sanctuary
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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Posts: 3099 Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 04.10.2014 at 17:07 Yeah, I agree. Dane's performance certainly gives that impression.
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| Enemy of Reality
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Posts: 3099 Written by [user id=104220] on 06.10.2014 at 16:14 That's the most reprehensible thing about this supposed "comeback." There isn't a similar thrash element to this record at all, which gives it a sound quite divorced from the "actual" Sanctuary albums. It's highly disappointing in that sense.
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