Sanctum - On The Horizon
April 28 2008 at 03:46:56 AM
Seattle’s “war crust” mavens return to the rubble, leaving behind one very average record.
For as much as it proudly rehashes the early works of Bolt Thrower, Amebix and Extreme Noise Terror, what’s disappointing about Sanctum’s debut,
On The Horizon, isn’t that it’s “unoriginal” –that’s a given and could even be used to their advantage - but that it sounds so benign by comparison within its adopted style. With the groundwork already laid, Sanctum presents more of an image than an album unfolding - it speaks in ways clear and familiar, though rendered imminently perishable while delivering the chain-fisted, gravel-scored danse macabre with only a fraction of the same urgency, dismantling force and quality songwriting of their predecessors. Outside of “In The Shadow of Death,” “Victory or Death,” and “This Downward Path” the rest of the album is all pretty standard, dull and meandering UK-style 1980’s Grind, most of which historically rises to about the same level of just so-so.
That said, 20 Buck Spin’s handeling of this latest pressing helps even things out a bit. The disc’s saving grace (aside from the slick packaging and revenant illustrations) is the inclusion of Sanctum’s first two EP’s, which constitute almost half the playing time with a far more vicious and determined level of performance and all seven tracks either captured with greater intensity or simply more exciting to listen to by comparison.
While it’s still odd that Sanctum should have emerged with so much hype amid the rising up of fellow soldiers of stench like Stormcrow, Nuclear Death Terror and Mass Grave, this is not to say that I, too, wouldn’t have immediately been let down following the group’s sudden mid-tour unraveling last fall. Then again, this is exactly the problem: At home, I’d still rather listen to
Realm of Chaos.
[Todd DePalma]
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