{"id":13237,"date":"2013-07-02T00:00:26","date_gmt":"2013-07-02T00:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=13237"},"modified":"2013-07-23T13:28:46","modified_gmt":"2013-07-23T13:28:46","slug":"album-review-sanktuary-something-fierce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-sanktuary-something-fierce\/","title":{"rendered":"SANKTUARY – Something Fierce (2013) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

SANKTUARY
Something Fierce<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nSpread The Metal (2013)<\/span>
Rating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Hailing from Canada, Sanktuary are the latest in a thrashy collective of bands reinvigorating the genre. While the band has a certain thrash bent, there are also plenty of traditional metal elements that remind me of super early Slayer<\/a> and Annihilator.<\/p>\n

After a metal-by-numbers intro entitled \u2018Deadly Prey\u2019, Something Fierce<\/em> opens proper with \u2018Heat Lightning\u2019. The song sounds like it was plucked straight from somebody\u2019s lost early 80s demo collection. The sound of thunder roars as the thin but aggressive guitars race along to the sound of the trebley rhythm section. Gang vocals and banshee screams top it all off and, if you come from this era, it will suitably impress you with its authenticity.<\/p>\n

\u2018Hail The Villain\u2019 compliments its back end offering a slightly slower pace and a very cool gear switch at the end, obviously paying homage to Metallica\u2019s early work. <\/p>\n

\u2018Thrill Of The Kill\u2019 is another speedster that tries very hard but never really reaches the peak of its predecessors. The production betrays the album on this one. While it\u2019s got the vintage production sound overall, it\u2019s also left in flaws from that era, such as the drums overpowering everything when the vocal isn\u2019t in play. Vocally this one is a bit more dynamic, with an evil preacher kind of approach similar to what Vengeance Rising did on the classic Once Dead<\/em> album (1990) years after the style was born. <\/p>\n

\u2018Screeching For Vengeance\u2019 and \u2018Fire In The Sky\u2019 get the album back on course with shredding guitar work. The guitarists play like there is no tomorrow as the drums lay out a classic Dave Lombardo (Slayer) foundation and the vocals scream along, trying desperately to sound like the evil heathen it so desperately wants to be seen as. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, \u2018Beyond The Wall\u2019 offers a break from the speed with an acoustic guitar base and a thoughtful lead guitar that showcases the band\u2019s talent in a much different way than the rest of the album.<\/p>\n

\u2018Midnite Mass\u2019 follows it with a big build and galloping rhythm that fits nicely with the rest of the album but is just different enough to make the album feel more dynamic. More of a traditional fist-pumper, Sanktuary come off like Sunset Strip preachers on this one. It catches you off-guard for sure and leaves you wondering why some of these elements weren\u2019t used to deepen the other songs as well? <\/p>\n

When all is said and done, I love listening to this album. It\u2019s barely left my ears since I have gotten it. What I\u2019m not so sure about though is whether I love it because I love it or whether I love it because it reminds me of the early 80s thrash scene that I have such fond memories of. I can name a dozen bands that Something Fierce<\/em> reminds me of and whether that\u2019s a good or bad thing will greatly depend on how original you like your bands to sound. For me, this debut album is like being in a dream. Like I mentioned earlier, this really is like finding a lost demo from the early 80s and remembering how kick ass of a time it was. <\/p>\n

Mark Fisher<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SANKTUARYSomething Fierce Spread The Metal (2013)Rating: 7\/10 Hailing from Canada, Sanktuary are the latest in a thrashy collective of bands reinvigorating the genre. While the band has a certain thrash bent, there are also plenty of traditional metal elements that remind me of super early Slayer and Annihilator. After a metal-by-numbers intro entitled \u2018Deadly Prey\u2019, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,650],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-sanktuary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13237"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13241,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13237\/revisions\/13241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}