Sanctus Infernum



2008 - Sanctus Infernum

Live 4 Metal
(October 2008)

Well, this is a turn up for the books! Solitude Productions, that bastion of Eastern European doom / death unleash this, an American band onto the metal markets! From the none-more diabolic hotbed of...erm...Kansas, come the unique sounds of Sanctus Infernum. I'm going to say right from the beginning that I am going to be raving about this, because it reminds me of the best parts of one of the most revered heavy metal bands of all time, but they're also practically ploughing an unfurrowed path. Confused? You will be...

In a sense, this brave four piece defy genre conventions. My first inclination is to say that they are a death metal band, but they're a death metal band that play extremely slowly. Now, the more pernickety amoung you will be raising an inquisitorial finger, and pronouncing, "Aha! Doom / Death then?". No. This is not some lace-lined, hanky-weeping gothic nonsense. This retains all the malice, spite and occult feel of all the best early death metal, but slowed down to an insane, warped pace. OK. Here's where I make the reference to the old death metal band. Actually, what I'm going to reference is the chourus to Morbid Angel's "Blessed Are The Sick". You remember how sick, how fucking wrong that sounded? I can remember thinking that was the true sound of a band that had somehow invoked the old ones, in all their warped un-glory. Sanctus Infernum have produced an entire album that drags this strange, skewed, downright nasty sound from you speakers.

The guitars are dredging up dirty, mangled riffs from the most brackish musical swamps, while the drums produce a dread inspiring, constant doomy vibe. The bass work ties in tandem with the drums, beating the rhythm of a blackened heart. Best of all though, are the delightfully mental death vocals of Ricky Vannatta. They seem to be the human vocalisations of an animal, channelling the beyond via his vocal chords. The pacing and production of the album is bloody brilliant - it's a thick, gravelly, unkempt record that seems hend hewn from some kind of diabolic granite. I honestly can't get enough of it. Slow death metal is the past. Slow death metal is the future. Viva Sanctus Infernum.

Reviewed by: Chris Davison

Lords of Metal
(September 2008)
(80/100)

Without any information I put on the record. That's best to have a genuine view, isn't it? Heavy doom riffs, but soon I am startled when all registers are opened and distorted vocals and bass-tuned sounds make my house shake. Sanctus Infernum mauls without mercy! But suddenly we hear flattering, nearly psychedelic guitar solos which are amazing. What is this? Heavy battering; yet with a vision? I went looking for more information.

This is the self-titled debut of an American band hailing from Wichita, Kansas in the United States and formed in 2006. The man of the flattering guitar solos appears to be an ex member of Manilla Road! Well, it was the second version of Manilla Road when most of their bolt was shot, yet… guitar solos on this album are the icing on the cake. When this album was recorded they had the minimum line-up of three men: Mark Anderson: bass and guitar (the Manilla Road bass player from 1999 till 2002, only a counter in the whole, let's be honest), Ricky Vannatta: vocals (he likes distortion a lot, resulting in a low-pitched grunt) and drummer Chris Johnson (he does a great, powerful job). Since May 2008 they have added a bassist named Jason Banks. I suppose they will play live as well.

My vision on this album is that it sounds quite obstinate and original. Even during the ten minutes long 'The Journey Back' they remain engrossing. That is the track where we hear some acoustic fragments at the beginning and the end and they run through a wide scale of emotions while they do not care about specific genres. Heavy doom riffs, distorted vocals as if mister Vannatta declares his notes on a platform alongside, then we are regaled with sublime soloing and the band's verdict is: "The Journey Back to Dust". Quite dark and underground. We cannot complain about the production of James Ismert, it will have its pros and cons. Also in the next tracks Sanctus Infernum proves that they do not care about restrictions and genres. Isn't that what we all praise with releases of, for instance, Indie Recordings? Fans of heavy ponderous metal that leaves the beaten track might discover a new favourite if they have a listen to this new band from the United States.

Reviewed by: Vera

Femforgacs
(August 2008)
(9.9/10)

If i look at the cover of Sanctus Infernum's debut material, i don't know what come to the mind of others, but it reminds me of iSiS, Mastodon and the alike artistic monstrums. And let's face it, it doesn't mislead us, since in their genre's borders the mixture of doom and depth own a fancy box, to which added black and death metal elements creats the real motherfucking, meat-stripping, hook metal, with which they're moving our short-tailed friends in the cold storage. The american band formed in 2006, and for me three unknown team's names emerges in the biographycal details: Grand Facade (which is theoretically a melodical death metal), Manilla Road (epic heavy/power/thrash) and Chapel of the Eye, which was a doom brigade, and existed only for one demo. I can't get enough of the cover (Jumali Katani) and the booklet (Sergey Terentiev), it isn't something unique, only a nice PS work, but it's stylish, it has deeper thoughts and the design isn't a hasty work, rather a worked out conception, and this is the word, which came to my mind numerously as a feeling through the muscular and mammoth (how suprising, heh? haha) kind of sounding album. The only negative thing is the logo, this symetrical thing with those flames is tremendously bad, or it doesn't fit, if it winked back from a cover of a motorbike lover deatn'n'roll crew or from a stooner brigade, then i would understand the feeling, but this 45 minutes are not really about parties, beer, sex, girls and drugs and the joy of speed...

They define themselves on their myspace page as Death Metal / Down-tempo / Black Metal... well, as i see they are not completely clear with the meaning of down-tempo, and they do not have any common with trip-hop slowed down experimentals overstepped by the hypnotical self-repeating clacking ambient, but all right! Let's see, what can i bring out from them!

First of all the reception and interpretation are not an easy task, it isn't that cd, which gives itself for the first listening, that' why the names of Mastodon or iSiS were effective at the beginning of my article, but like that i could mention the symbol of Neurosis or Pelican too (however the latter brouth itself to the end with its last album, it was a pity hearing-listening). This 45 minutes actually goes along the meaning of classical doom death strikes, hooks on strange black influences, with old-school kind of stooner solos (actually these are the part of doom), and again with not common acoustical breakdowns, and varyfied the only breathing melancholy with monumental movements, which are typical in the above mentioned bands. At numerous places old school doom and death metal spheres descend from twenty years depth, and request us for circulating dance ritual, but the point of perception is in death, as the lyrics are not about the flower collecting Katinka, neither the caring father. To the deep feelings, personal lyrics and abysmal music are the most fitting, and there is no lack in this here!

I've got a feeling, that they sell the past tasty wine as something new, deepen it with spices, but not in a new arty/kitschy suit. Certainly, that also belongs to the truth, while Neurosis hides huge musicians in itself, till then Sanctus Infernum's strenght is not in the specialized knowledge, but it's not a wrecked ship, because not the knowledge is the goal, rather the depth and vegetative feelings brought up from the past. One song flows into the other, painting a terrify, majestic and heavy picture of the recent past and the world before birth, they suprisingly do not think of future. After this much of ballast it wouldn't make any sense. One of my friend said not long ago, that he commited suicide at night in his dream, and death was just like when long ago we sniffed together glue.

This dissonant floating and joy of consciousness could close into a box in the side of feelings the circus of the american band unmatched deviance: the dark croaking-rattling vocals full of hatred and the depressive slow rumbling, which are pressed out from the drums and guitars. I do not claim, that Sanctus Infernum would put down something huge and unique to that table, but it's adequatly abundant and artistical, thus we can't eat it on one dinner, and until other band only give us crumbs, here we find 2 kilos of bread on the table with a knife in its head...

Reviewed by: Zoltan Pataki

Blackbelle Music
(April 2008)

Doom/death metal outfit Sanctus Infernum from Wichita, Kansas USA certainly subscribe to the Black Sabbath school of riffery with plenty of Iommi inspired mammoth grooves crawling through the eight tracks on this full length self titled album, their debut.

Basically the ensemble of Mark Anderson-guitars, Ricky Vannatta-vocals, Chris Johnson-drums and Ian Rowley-bass are death metal somewhere between the sound of Swedish masters Entombed and earlier American entities, as opposed to much of the cookie cutter generic death being spat out at an alarming rate of mediocrity these days, though very prominent doom influences invoking the spirits of Sabbath and the likes of Candlemass saturate the majority of the material.

Opener 'Flesh Without Sin' delves immediately into the doom metal element of Sanctus Infernums music with a thick foreboding guitar laying down a steady menacing march from which the ensuing instrumentation draws life, nourishes and builds.

More death veined riffing and heavy rhythm sections swarm in around this doomy intro as does front man Ricky Vannattas absorbing vocal delivery which in this song is mostly a deep spoken growling series of intonations, in others ranging to a subterranean rumble.

Brain obliterating pace and sheer neck breaking speed is not essentially in abundance here in this track or for that matter any of the material; the influx of doom riffs and pervading influences of doom legends shrouding the work means it walks with a purposeful and malevolent stride rather than bolting along like a greyhound on ketamine.

'God Unto Myself' swaggers into being with much the same kind of vibe, a sluggish but sinister slice of guitar swirling into a chunkier beast stomping in on the back of pounding drums. Here Vannattas voice takes on a classic death metal hue, growling out the sparse but forceful lyrics with a rejection of religious views on perceived 'divine' beings in favour of embracing ones self as god.

Like many of the earlier American death metal protagonists, in particular Florida's Obituary and Death spring to mind Sanctus Infernum are not loathe to colour the material with a vast array of solos and lead breaks. As I've stated innumerable times before and probably will again, solos are generally not my thing at all though I do find them more tolerable and appropriate in a genre like death rather than black which for the most part should just steer clear of them altogether.

However in some of the instances they rear their ugly heads here on the Sanctus Infernum tunes (which is in fact relatively frequently) they sit astonishingly well in their heftier musical surrounds and tie themselves to the backbone of the track nicely. In particular the first lead break in 'Flesh Without Sin' and final track 'Let It Be So' don't elect to spiral off into whining showboating tangents, they are beautifully understated and underpin the rhythm succinctly.

This isn't the case with all of them, some of these songs would probably benefit from completely stripping the solos away or at least in the case of the tracks featuring more than one lead break (again the aforementioned two tracks fall into this category) losing one of them.

Acoustic moments trail in amongst the heavier grunt, lending a bit of calmer atmosphere, especially evident book ending 'Let It Be So' and ten minute behemoth 'The Journey Back', but for the majority of the time doom and death dominate and wrestle for supremacy both emerging as dual victors.

The likes of 'Facing The Black' have an emphasis on death whilst the sprawling duration and brooding instrumentation of 'The Journey Back' sees it nestled more comfortably in doom territory.

As noted the vocals are strictly death but not in any garbled completely inhuman bestial styling, the majority of the lyrics are fully intelligible though by no means do they ever cross into areas of clean singing.

The guitars throughout are crisp and weighty with a big sound, combining well with drums which though never extend into extreme punishing brutality have plenty of depth and a deep bass rumbles amidst it all.

The album has a slick and polished sound and this fairly high gloss quality will probably ensure that it is able to straddle the boundaries between extreme and mainstream metal with relative ease and find a big audience, albeit perhaps more so to the heavier side of mainstream than the MOR hordes.

In this regard Sanctus Infernum does bear resemblance to the vast minions of American death metal outfits in mass proliferation currently but they certainly do it much better than many; I can definitely think of one particular outfit who also have album cover art depicting an animal skull like this which I am far less fond of than Sanctus Infernum.

Those who enjoy a doom meets death metal expedition as interpreted by pioneers and forerunners of both genres given a contemporary refining and an updated sound should be in raptures with Sanctus Infernums well crafted mixture of songs.

Reviewed by: Jamie Goforth

Metal-R-Us
(March 2008)

Highlights
This is a interesting band to say the least. Incorporating many different styles into their sound these guys have somehow captured my attention and held it. This is actually some pretty good stuff as the nucleous of their sound revolves around a classic death metal format. But they manage to include some elements of black and a very nostalgic doom feel as well. Tracks like "The Journey Back" showcases this in a 10 minute opus while adding some exceptional acoustic guitar. And to top it off there is actually some great guitar and drum work to go along with the crunching sound. I am actually quite pleased with this record as it reminds me of the days of yore only adding a touch of modern day metal. In some essence they remind me of a darker version of Bloodbath only better while expanding on the sound quite a bit more while adding other influences.

This album has a little bit for everyone pretty much. Songs like "Flesh Without Sin", "Facing the Black", "Suffer", and "What Calm is Without Storm" focus on the death metal aspects whereas "The Journey Back", "God Unto Myself", and "Let It Be So" have a more doom vibe and feel. There isnt much black involved aside from some of lyrical content or vocals from time to time. But man, this is some great stuff and certainly worthy of attention. Its not blistering fast like Vader but more towards a classic Entombed or early Death vibe. I can see that this record will get plenty of spin in my cd rotation for the next few weeks. 2008 is shaping up to be a great year so far.

Problems
Musically there is none. They dont wow you with technical expertise but thats not their goal here.

Final Thought
I would definitely recommend this album to fans of the classic death/doom era. Its possible this album will wear off as the year progresses because they are not breaking any new ground but right now its hitting the mark pretty nicely. At the end of the day if your looking for an album that you can enjoy all the way through and gives you that old school feeling than this is something for you to at least lend a ear too. The album flows very nicely together from one song to another without a hitch. Maybe some people will think im understating this record or even overstating it i dont know. All i know is it hits a certain vibe with me that tingles the senses and excites me. Guess you will have to see what it does for you

Reviewed by: Anubis