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Monday, March 16, 2020

Alkymist- Sanctuary (Indisciplinarian Records Indisc31)


Before you dig deep into this really heavy and intense musical experience you should read this statement from the band:

“Sanctuary is an odyssey in a life. A maneuver amongst demons and angels. Coming from a dark embrace into a haze of light, in between the infinite sky and vast lonely sea. Valiant, eager and not yet burdened by a sick load of sorrow but full of questions and full of wonder, desire and greed. Following the spirits call, a journey begins… A journey to find answers. Gazing upon the stars as if the answers were floating in the endless astral plane.

With each milestone passed, and the more explored, a lot of answers are given. But with each answer, new questions emerges both in heart and mind. Searching the unknown and trying to grasp the questions from the growing hordes of whispering shadows. But even if the shadows demand sacrifice, defeat and disappointment, and even if the sky seems sad and grey, there will still be reasons to celebrate. Reasons to shake hands with the holy and the cursed alike, drink with the sad and the merry and listen to the haunted and the blessed.

With eyes wide open blissfully towards the stars. With soul, heart and mind merged as one, the strive for sanctuary is still going on. Does the flow of questions ever end… does the search ever stop?”


Oethon- The Dead starts with a really heavy bass but then some pretty predictable death doom metal riffs and vocals follow.  The track slows down and some melodic guitar is played for a short section before the powerful voice dominates.  As the track slows and a synth drone is heard, a new heavy section begins.  Cool sounding guitar in the next section. Peter sings a really spacey section now with some clean guitars but back to the death doom.

S.O.Y is like a creepy horror films soundtrack and includes some piano which makes a nice ambience on this short interlude track. Draugr quickens the pace and features some cool effected guitars but still not a single guitar solo, which I really miss. It gets very heavy at the end. Check it out below. 

Gust Of War is a very short interlude piece with spacey sounds and bass guitar or is it acoustic?? Desolated Sky has a beautiful start but you can feel something the evil brewing. Not before too long, Peter kicks in with the heavy vocal. Later he changes from death to a cleaner vocal as Stefan plays some nice melodic guitar parts. It later gets very heavy with a repeated riff and some layers of sounds in the background. This is quite an emotional track and probably the best on the record, less predictable and more original. Astral Haze has some interesting synths and sounds at the start and then the brutality returns!! This track actually features a cool guitar solo on the fade out but this is the only one on the record, sadly.
 Warkeeper is a short instrumental outro that bookends this intense death doom experience.  INTENSE MUSIC..... be careful.. 


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