Band:	Sanhedrin
Album:	Lights On
Style:	Heavy metal
Release date:	March 04, 2022
A review by:	RaduP

01. Correction
02. Lights On
03. Lost At Sea
04. Change Takes Forever
05. Code Blue
06. Scythian Women
07. Hero's End
08. Death Is A Door

There's somewhat of a overflow that happens when a sound is so dated that it becomes timeless.

It's been quite normal that, once a sound is created and explodes, said sound will continue in some form of another through rehashes. It's comfortable to listen to something and instantly recognize all staples of it. It's like starting a new episode of a TV show you've been watching instead starting another one. It takes little to no time to get back into the world of it rather than being bombarded with something you have to put effort into getting. A lot of flak is given to bands who are ok with just doing an old sound, and even if they're doing it very well, there's always the feeling that it's not really doing anything to push things forward. And also that one might as well just listen to the original progenitors. After all, can anyone do heavy metal better than Judas Priest and Iron Maiden?

Sanhedrin's sound is far from what you'd call original. It's comfort music for heavy metal fans. And everything about its sound and aesthetic is very precisely placing it as early 80s heavy metal. The kind that is still on the hard rock border, but also basically an album you could reasonably imagine as having been released in 1984. There's some praise to be given to how credible their take on the sound is, while also being aware of how much flak we're giving bands that sound too close to band's they're imitating. There isn't really a single band Sanhedrin imitates, and similarities can be drawn to a lot of bands. And that's partly their saving grace. There's plenty of moments that remind me of Judas Priest or Rush or Saxon or Grim Reaper, but there's never a moment where I feel like I'm listening to some band's forgotten B-sides.

Indeed, sound rehashes really work when the band clearly understands what made the original sound so great, and where you can tell that the band is putting actual effort and isn't pumping albums on autopilot. A lot of the revivalist traditional metal bands I discovered around the same time that I reviewed the band's previous albums have had pretty good debuts, but have been way too quick to capitalize on it and ended up sounding like rehashes of their own selves. I'm not sure if my opinion of Lights On would've changed if it was released just one year after The Poisoner, but right now it feels like it was an album that had a lot work put into it. The melodies, the choruses, the small goth rock and doom metal injections, all of these showcase an album that feels like it had work put into it. Its familiarity is a bit deceiving, because the band sneaks songs like "Hero's End" that do feel like they transcend the mere sound imitation once your guard is down.

And it's so easy to listen to. Not just because it's familiar territory and it's a completely unchallenging album. But because it knows how to use familiar sounds to create songs that feel so familiar on second listen. And like I said, because sounds keep getting rehashed, this sounds like it could've been released in 1984, but also any year since. And any year from now on. I can't imagine heavy metal ever dying at this point.