When you think of Seattle, the first things that usually come to your mind would be grunge, over priced coffee and a distinct feeling of melancholy which coincidentally has led to some of the best music ever to be produced, whether that be from The Melvins, Nirvana or Jimi Hendrix. Despite its rich musical history, you don’t expect Seattle to produce that many NWOBHM tinged thrash bands. After 25 years Sanctuary has returned with their new album The Year The Sun Died (Century Media) and in all honesty it might be worth the wait.

Despite the controversy surrounding frontman’s Warrel Dane’s decision to momentarily decommission progressive metal giants Nevermore to restart Sanctuary taking most of the press coverage around the release of this album, it would be foolish to not look at this album on its own merits. The Year The Sun Died is a sleekly produced modern trash album that packs one hell of a punch, in terms of its frenetic guitar leads and powerful drums that power the album forward like a charging rhino.

Warrel Dane recently informed fans worrying about his vocal ability that he could still nail the high notes from the bands previous albums and he has certainly proved his neigh-sayers wrong here.  Dane is on fine form with his powerful almost operatic NWOBHM vocals which draw the obvious parallels to them of Bruce Dickinson and Rob Halford.

While its certainly more of an early days of thrash album than the heavier era or Exodus or Kreator, The Year The Sun Died certainly has its moments of thrash goodness, but overall the album is more Diamond Head than Slayer.

Overall, Sanctuary have hit a home run with their return album. The riffs are there as well as the one of the best production jobs you are likely to hear this year, the albums sounds like a razor sharp turbo charged Judas Priest and has the kind of bite that came from the Andy Sneap produced Megadeth albums.  It is real treat for fans of anthemic, polished melodic metal.

7.0/10

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DAN O’BRIEN