Review Summary: If you’re really a fan of the groove, then this band’s debut album will hit you like a freight train. I certainly had my share of the fun.
Sanctity - Road to Bloodshed
I remember it like it was yesterday. While I was in the CD store, I tentatively looked up at the section of new releases and, suddenly, an album entitled The
Road to Bloodshed caught my eye; it somehow rung a bell to me, and I figured I would buy it to appease my thriving curiosity. Oh, wait, that was yesterday. With not enough money, I ended up not being able to buy it either. But, when I came home, I dug through the internet for
Sanctity’s album in hope of learning what I had missed out on.
This album could have been the destruction of the world, seeing it was the result of some bribes to record companies from the part of Matt Heafy himself. Frankly, I would never have listened to Trivium’s guinea pigs, but I decided to put the bands implication aside and focus on what
Sanctity, novices on the metal field, could come up with. All rumors aside, it was magnanimous of to help sign
Sanctity and secure a deal, perhaps condescending to raise the Trivium name as long conquerers on the metal scene. Either that or, well; don’t teach Grandma how to suck eggs. There is the teeny issue of Trivium making themselves look a bit dippy. That leads me to the essential question: Has the new quartet hailing from Asheville completely put the America heavy-waves in a position of shame, or are the blind only leading the blind?
It would have been eventually revealed in my review. However, I’m going to get right on answering. Heafy could not have looked more stupid.
(dot, dot, dot)
Sanctity can be classified as modern Thrash Metal, maybe even Thrashcore; but one thing is for sure. I’m hooked. Along with a few other bands,
Sanctity has really brought about an undeniably groovy neo-Thrash style, and they play it extremely well. The first track off the album
Beneath the Machine features some proficient staccato and dynamic leads. Being very hard to pick out a concrete hook, this track still plays an intricate, yet catchy chorus. However, things dim down a bit as the next song fires in. The vocals, taken up by Jared MacEachern, are very controversial, leaning especially towards the bad side upon first impression. However, the raspy shouting that is prevalent in the tracks are highly accentuated in
Brotherhood of Destruction, so if you’ve decided that the vocals are bad, this track could really make or break the argument. After hearing the album several times, it kind of dawns on you that the vocals are particularly bad in this track. But, as soon as the clean singing announces its arrival, I seem to forget what the big deal was. When it comes to the vocals, the band are pulling at an interesting thread, but I would consider it a one-album anomaly.
If I didn’t hold my horses, I would say every track on this album is killer. But, unfortunately we’ve got to proceed to the elimination. And so to the apprehension about
Billy Seals, introduced with an epic violin solo, held out in tone as the base is layered with mid-paced drumming and riffing. The vocals couldn’t have found a better place to settle than here. Immediately, the rapid-fire ostinato of surreally aggressive vocals and lead shreds soar in. One may notice the overlapping of the vocals which creates an eclipse of some sort, proven highly effective in carrying out the hook in this song.
Somewhere I’m still hearing a faint voice yelling “Trivium, Trivium, Trivium” in between all the playing; maybe from my unnecessary embarkment on the whole band being involved. ***, the next song is even a bit similar to the Trivium-groove.
Zeppo has the real Thrash vibe to it, and it feels good to be home. Apart from the chorus, which shows flaws, the pickings are maneuvered spot on in the song. In fact I would have taken Jared off of the chorus and only let the echo create some sort of nostalgia. The track also presents one of the best solo and sweeps I’ve ever heard, hands down.
It seems like these North Carolina newcomers really have it going. Again it’s really a question of the vocals; and as much as I cherish them on some tracks,
Sanctity really has to pick something more concrete and well, bearable. I even heard some falsettos in a one or two tracks. But what really gets me is how accessible the album really is, and how the guitars are so contemporarily, yet groovily used to promote a motif, and bridge it with outstanding solo’s. Even beyond the choruses and verses,
Sanctity persist in creating solid sequences. So, if you’re really a fan of the groove, then this band’s debut album will hit you like a freight train. I certainly had my share of the fun.
Key Tracks
- Brotherhood of Destruction
- Billy Seals
- Zeppo
- Seconds
