Wow, where do you start? If Immortal Souls and Crimson Moonlight collaborated in a Scandinavian all-star band, this is how I'd hope they would sound.
Begin with an urgent, aggressive backbone of biting thrash beats from the drums. Blast beats are here and there, but more often a constant slave-driving faster, faster, harder, faster sets the stage for chaos. The guitars, which remind me very much of Immortal Souls with the speedy high pitched melodies, then mix with the Crimson Moonlight-esque keys and you've got a melodic, symphonic, extraordinarily aggressive mix of black metal beauty. The musicianship is stunning all the way around, and does take time out for one "fun with time signatures!" section in the title track, but otherwise finds ways to incorporate jaw-dropping guitar runs into songs that make sense rather than attempting Dream Theater's audience limiting self-indulgence. The vocals are more or less the standard high pitched black metal shrieks, and also are done well. The only musical complaint I can muster is that the clean vocals in the last song (the only clean vocals on the album) sound pretty butt-rockin', with harmonies and the whole deal. Kind of revolting, but it's there and gone, with beautiful insanity restored.
Lyrically, Sanctifica manages to cover all the bases as well. We've got the Blood of Christ and the strength of God -- always good -- alongside the enslavement of Satan, and the darkness embracing the land and the nocturnal activities of the forest, in both English and (I assume) Swedish! What more could a guy want? The insert is appropriately covered in trees and shadows, the sun is setting on the cover.
So. . . yep. It sounds like it, it looks like it, this is it. The best Christian black metal album I've ever heard.
10/10
Other coverage for this album
Art for the Ears 2000Reviewed by Marco PovervestOn this eight song album you can hear fast, atmospheric black metal. The atmosphere is created by brooding keyboard sounds while the guitars try to add aggression with biting tones. The guitars are not always played as typical black metal. The keyboards sometimes remind me of Veni Domine, like in the titletrack. Not all the stuff here is fast and aggressive as the band slows down now and then for…Dead Zine 2000Reviewed by SORGFrom the Scandinavian lands comes another great black metal band, Sanctifica! Building strongly on the symphonic nature of bands like Crimson Moonlight and older Emperor, Sanctifica brings forth a great cd of true black metal styles mixing the harsh vocals and intense fierce guitar playing with atmospheric keyboards. Spirit of Purity is mostly mid-paced with a lot of melodic feeling. Purveyors of…Similar sounding releases
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