Sanctus Infernum - Sanctus Infernum (CD)

Review
Icon Music Mag
8/10

Her kommer noe heavy shit fra Kansas USA. Sanctus Infernum er et, hmm ja, hva skal man kalle det?, Black, doom, death metal band som er ute med sin første skive. På coveret er det noen kråketegn av noen hieroglyfer som er helt uleselige. Velkjent black metal stil, dette lover bra. Fonten er faktisk så uleselig at jeg måtte google før jeg kunne slå fast hva bandet egentlig het.

Albumet åpner sterkt med låta Flesh Without Sin. Dette er stemningspreget, mørkt, brutalt og hardt. Selv om coveret skriker black metal låter det death med knivskarpe gitarer og fuzz fra helvette. Det er nok ingen hemmelighet at disse gutta er Slayer fans. Som jeg sa låter det death på første sporet, men det er noe med stemningen det går sakte det er ”groove”. Det fikk meg til å tenke på en gang jeg og en kamerat satt i øvingslokalet og prøvde å plukke ei Eletric Wizard låt. ”Du spiller for fort, tenk på kake, seig julekake det er sånn det skal spilles! Det er da det er fett” sa kompisen min. Og det er akkurat det Sanctus Infernum gjør det går treigt, det er fett! Det er gjort på en kontrolert og velbalansert måte, doom preget tar på ingen måte overhånd det er bare med på å fylle ut lydbildet.

Jaha tenker du kanskje nå, og får lyst til å sjekke dem ut. Det her låter jo fett, men det er mer, mye mer. For ikke nok med at gutta har fått til en herlig miks av doom og death, her er det også plass til litt black. Flere låter har partier med akustiske gitarer med disharmoniske riff som får det til å gå kaldt nedover ryggen på deg. Da jeg hørte det tenkte jeg straks tilbake på Satyricon før dem blei et mainstream radioband og solgte sjelen sin. Det låter som ”Dark Medival Times” og dette er med på å sette prikken over I’en på noe som allerede er umåtelig bra. Disse gutta har klart å skille ut det beste ved ulike sjangere å sy det sammen til noe nytt og spennende. Det skal bli spennende å se hvor disse gutta er om noen år, for de har absolutt det som skal til. Anbefalte låter Suffer, Let It Be So og Waking The Dead.

Author: Christoffer Holseter

Review
Imperiumi
8.5/10
18.09.2008

Manilla Roadin entinen basisti laittaa pystyyn black, death ja doom metalia yhdistelevän bändin, joka saa levytyssopimuksen Venäjältä – kuulostaako varsin oudolta? No, metallin maailmassa kaikki on mahdollista ja niin myös tämäkin tarina. Kyse on Mark Andersonista, joka löysi muutama vuosi sitten Kansasin preerioilta muutamia metallimusiikoita, joiden kanssa Sanctus Infernum sai alkunsa. Kotipesä bändille löytyi taas itänaapurissamme majaa pitävästä BadMoodMan Recordsista, joka on julkaissut muun muassa Kauan- ja Vinterriket-yhtyeitä.

Sanctus Infernum ei ole kuitenkaan huuruista ambientia vaan painavaa asiaa. Levyn raskas ja hidas poljento pohjaa doom metaliin, mutta itse riffeissä ja sovituksissa on vahva kuolonkatku, joka tuo paikoin mieleen Morbid Angelin kierouden, Obituaryn tylyyden tai jopa Goatlordin suomaisen primitiivisyyden. Waking the Dead starttaa taas sellaisella heavygroovella, josta Pantera olisi ollut kateellinen. Koko pakettia verhoaa kuitenkin okkultistinen ja hämäräperäinen aura, joka puskee esille muun muassa God unto Myselfin ”shemhamforash”-huudoista.

Levy onkin kelpoa mylvintää ja raivon repimistä kurjasta ihmissielusta. Vahva ja massiivinen soundimaailma on tuhti tae yhtyeen antaumukselliselle paiskonnalle, joka tosin joskus kaipaisi hidastelun vastapainoksi hieman äkkipikaisempaa tulkintaa. Onneksi tätä puoltakin paikoin esitellään muun muassa panssarivaunun varmuudella etenevässä Sufferissa. Tunnelmapalat taas menevät muutaman virkistävän akustisen hetken ja Andersonin viljelemien kitarasoolojen piikkiin, joista jälkimmäinen onkin maistuva heitto vanhan heavyn suuntaan. Kurkkupuolellakaan ei tarvitse bändin häpeillä, sillä Ricky Vannatan murina on sopivan räkäinen ja täyteläinen, hieman Mikael Åkerfeldtiin kallellaan. Tosin joskus ääntä on efektoitu hieman liiankin kanssa.

Kun tätä levyä on pyöritellyt soittimessa muutamaan otteeseen, huomaa oman pään nyökkäilevän tuomiopäivän kokoisten riffien kanssa vallan mallikkaasti. Vielä pienoisesta tasapaksuudesta on Sanctus Infernumin päästävä eroon, mutta jo tällaisenaan yhtyeellä on käsissään vakuuttava debyytti.

Author: Antti Klemi

Review
Blackbelle Music
04.2008

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.

Author: Jamie Goforth

Review
Life 4 Metal
10.2008

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.

Author: Chris Davison

Review
Chris Davison
9.9/10
August 2008

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...

Автор: Zoltan Pataki