Sanctification – Black Reign (2009)

Featuring a very strong lineup and some brutal guest appearances, the Swedes of Sanctification deliver us their 2nd full-length after a 6 year gap. The album was recorded with Kristoffer Hell on main vocals, but apparently has left the band so far. As for the guest appearances we have Peter Tägtgren (Hypocrisy, Pain) and Masse Broberg (Dark Funeral) on vocals in a few tracks, and the drums where played by Nils Fjellström also from Dark Funeral.

After reading all the name dropping you must be thinking this album will be totally amazing, and it is to some extent. If you like Death Metal and like most of your albums to sound alike, then “Black Reign” will be the best release you can find this year, since it’s brutal, well produced and excellently executed. However, if you like something a little fresher or a bit different, then this album will not please you, since the band sticks to the ‘traditional’ DM formula and never let’s go.

That being said, the vocals are pretty solid and with the guest appearances (which you can’t miss by the way) they are very appealing and provide 60% of the brutality of the music. Like you expected the groovy riffing is pretty solid and has a few nice riffs here and there but it’s extremely repetitive. There are tons of Cannibal Corpse/<insert-legendary-DM-band’s-name-here> moments that will have you head banging or moshing from start to end, however for me they just don’t cut it, since if you have the quality of musicians that this band has, I would expect something less formulaic in nature.

My favorite part of this album is the super drum track, it features very interesting arrangements and tries to push things a bit further, but it’s quickly drawn to the overall ‘cookie cutter’ sound that the band has.

If you like your DM to sound like the ‘classic’ stuff released years ago then this album is definitely for you, but if you want something new or different then just get a different release since this album brings nothing new to the table. I for once did enjoyed the album since I think sometimes you need a new release to remind you of the old times, and this is what Sanctification and Jungle Rot do for me.

Release: 2009

Country: Sweden