Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Nothing changes in the end bar time itself, although fans and listeners may wonder might have happened, what could have been in the world of Metal had Sanctuary not folded in on itself after the release of the live offering of Into The Mirror, what would have a world that took Metal into the homes of those that only five years before had shunned the American metal Gods of Metallica, Megadeth, the likes of Queensryche and Anthrax. Would Sanctuary have found a safe haven in which to preach to the converted and beyond?

The 1980s, even the later years of it, seem so far away now. What has happened in the world has somehow eclipsed the hope that was to come as the Berlin Wall came crashing down aided by pick and desire, now Sanctuary, in deed and thought seems to be the last place in which is to be offered in a world dominated by saturated news and scaremongering. There is no east and west divide in which Sanctuary left behind, there is only a growing feeling of disaffection between religion rather than the dogma of ideology. Ideology, religion, power vacuums ready to be devoured when listening to Sanctuary’s first studio since 1989, the overwhelmingly powerful The Year The Sun Died.

With Warrel Dane, Lenny Rutledge, Jim Sheppard, Dave Budhill all returning to fight the Metal fight once, the space that is filled by Brad Hull on guitars gives the band a semblance of musical shape, of an emotion that could have been considered missing at the time of their first two albums, despite being rich and deep in a texture becoming their standing and delivery but now something has changed. It could be the fullness of time, that elusive monster in which seems to catch some unawares; whatever it is though, the songs on The Year The Sun Died blister and burn the earholes with love and a generous disposition.

Tracks such as Let The Serpent Follow Me, Exitium (Anthem of the Living), the outstanding One Final Day (Sworn To Believe) and The World is Wired hang in the air long after the album has spoken its last breath. The thoughts and musings of a lyric designed to spark radical debate, to ignite a discussion of just what exactly will be Humanity’s final offering to the world and the Universe  is enough to swallow hard and take a stand, for the answer is not pretty but it has to be uttered.

The world may have been a scary place in 1989, in some ways it was the most desolate of decades, the dying screams of a society bundled up in the rush for a few pounds of gold outweighing the need for truth and belief. Now we have by passed all that and surely only await the final brutal bang, till then there is always the confidence that The Year The Sun Died is enough to keep us hanging on.

Ian D. Hall