Sanctuary - Refuge Denied

Long before Seattle became the breeding ground for the grunge scene of the early 90’s metal was alive and well in Washington State. Bands like Metal Church, Queensryche and Sanctuary were forging ahead in the face of an ever-changing music scene that MTV had violent clamped onto in its push for the cosmetically-challenged hair bands of the day. While girls (and boys who should have checked their gender daily) sung along to the most trite and pedestrian lyrics since “Disco Duck” by Rick Dees, heavy metal bands like Sanctuary were issuing albums like Refuge Denied, maybe not the better of the band’s two releases but certainly important and the initial starting point. After all, the mighty Nevermore rose like a watery Jean Grey from the scattered ashes of this fine band.

The album opens with “Battle Angels”, a very polished anthem about Armageddon and the pending war between good and evil. While many a black metal band has undoubtedly lost hours of sleep hidden behind mountains of corpse paint writing about just this topic, Warrel Dane and company made it appear effortless and even entertaining to face such a violent death. The mastery here is Dane’s lyrical genius. I make no secret of my love for Nevermore and how disgusting it is that they are still so criminally underrated and overlooked in favor of mall bands and other stupidity passing for metal these days. Warrel Dane possesses the finest poetic mind in metal today, and that’s an opinion shared by many; if Barry Manilow wrote the songs that make the world sing, Dane writes the songs that make the thinking world contemplate and question. Within tracks like “Die for My Sins”, “Veil of Disguise” and “Soldiers of Steel” we get a very early glimpse at the arsenal that makes up Dane’s decisive, often paranoid view of the world we inhabit. This remarkable trait carries over into Nevermore now, but was somewhat less intricate. Warrel’s subdued delusions notwithstanding, Refuge Denied solidifies the assertion that heavy metal music is a cerebral undertaking for only those capable of its message and delivery. Not to be dismissed is Warrel’s high-pitched vocals that are far more controlled and powerful than King Diamond’s, yet lacking the perfection of, say, Rob Halford’s pinpoint timing with regard to the placement of said pitches. While Dane may have relied a bit too much on the hair-curling range he possessed, it’s an album of such great music that you don’t even notice it. Besides, he also utilizes that familiar mid-tone range quite successfully as well.    

Produced by Dave Mustaine (and quite under-produced), the sound does have a muddy feel to it that certainly would have been much better had it been mixed a lot crisper and with more attention to the high end. That said, the band’s tight foundation is not to be denied. Like a well-greased wheel on a ten-ton truck, Sanctuary set the bar quite high for U.S. power metal with technical design. There are many classic riffs here by way of Sean Blosi and Lenny Rutledge, especially in “Sanctuary” and “Die for My Sins”; the verse riff in the latter is so typically metal from the U.S. side of the spectrum that it has been copied time and again by a varying degree of bands both known and obscure. Jim Sheppard’s plundering bass talents are also there in the mix (however low), as is Dave Budbill’s competent drumming. Of particular showcasing is the band’s cover of Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit”, which was also a favorite of Warrel’s first band, Serpent’s Knight. A live fan favorite to this day, it’s evident that even in the early days Warrel and the boys weren’t afraid to cover some of the more classic, albeit odd artists in the discography.

The band’s 1990 Into the Mirror Black is really where one can see the transition from Sanctuary to Nevermore quite clearly; the writing was more mature and less fantastical in base and the band stepped up its technical proficiency a few notches. To some it’s the better album, and while it is an amazing album in its own right the humble beginnings here are important and the basic blueprint for the near-perfection of Nevermore’s past and present.                           

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As terrible as this is to say, when I first heard Sanctuary in 1988 through my friend Kurt I was not all that impressed. I did like the main riff in “Die for My Sins” and the vocal line melody of “Battle Angels”, but overall I was not mesmerized. You see, my friend Kurt was my partner in crime as we grew up smack in middle of the 80’s metal explosion. We also spent endless hours hopping buses, bumming rides and saving up cash to either send through the mail for records and tapes or hit record stores. Around this time in 1988 it became evident that while Kurt and I ventured on the same road early on, our paths were not so much drifting as they were doing complete 180 turns from one another. I sought out more of the metal underground in the form of Bathory, Death, Warlock, Heathen, Agent Steel, Dark Angel, Demolition Hammer, Sodom, etc. He, in turn, was into W.A.S.P., Anvil, Savatage, and bands like that…right before he jumped ship and started to listen to crappy dance music to impress the Mexican girls down the street. He was never the same. Anyway, when he bought Refuge Denied I remember hearing it out of his boom box up by the railroad tracks near our homes in Chicago. I sat intently on my bike and listened to Warrel Dane hit some damn impressive high notes and didn’t think it was the worst thing I’d ever heard, but like a silly kid I was more interested in Satanic, dark lyrics. I eventually got his copy of the cassette, along with a hundred other tapes, when he made that aforementioned horrible switch to the dark side and eventually it grew on me.

It grew on me so much I was quite anticipatory of Sanctuary’s opening slot for Warlock and Megadeth at the Aragon in May of 1988. Granted, I was mainly there to see Warlock, first and foremost, then Megadeth and Sanctuary in that order, but I was interested to hear the band live. In the 30-minutes Sanctuary got I heard Warrel hit some incredibly high notes that I, honestly, dismissed as him showing off the octaves. The band was really tight, but Dane’s overpowering screams just left me a little flat. I enjoyed their set, but it was more a “meh” moment for me that night. Too much Cronos, Quorthon and Tom G. Warrior can never satiate the total soul.

I can say now, nearly 23-years later, that this album not only grew on me, it set the tone for my entry into Nevermore and bands of similar ilk. It also marked a spot in my personal book of growth; I realized that all of the overhyped Satanic wording in the world can’t make an otherwise crappy album any better. Sanctuary was the band that showed me, well, forced me to open my realm much wider and see the milieu of other bands out there that offered such tremendous music that I otherwise dismissed as “wimpy” because it wasn’t always appealing to my dark sides. How much music I missed then astounds me, but, thankfully, the well is never-ending in that regard as I am rediscovering that period over the last decade or so. I suppose Refuge Denied is more a staple of growth for me more than any other album of this period simply because I allowed myself to be won over by its then-contemporary sound and diversity. I also came to realize that, as a vocalist and lyricist for my band during that period, Warrel Dane was allowing his soul to be bared through tracks like “Veil of Disguise” and “Die for My Sins”, which was a wonderful trend he’d follow for the next 23-years without seeming to rest. While vividly less mature than anything else related to either band, Refuge is, for all purposes, a fun little album that is seriously undervalued to this day, yet still seems to delight fans young and old. In fact the main gripe for all of us is the suspect Mustaine production that muddied to death an otherwise brilliant album of midline power metal. This nuisance aside, the album’s intensity and drive can’t be devalued anymore.

When an album alters your life-path you recall it fondly, even if the band is far from your personal radar these days. Thankfully, Sanctuary is still in my radar, especially now that I’ll hopefully get to see them live again for the first time since 1991, and I am forever thankful such a small band from a seemingly grunge-plagued city made such an impact on me then and now. 

Release Date: 1987
Label: Sony/Epic Records

TRACK LISTING

1.  Battle Angels
2.  Die for My Sins
3.  Soldiers of Steel
4.  Veil of Disguise
5.  Sanctuary
6.  White Rabbit
7.  Termination Force
8.  Ascension to Destiny
9.  The Third War

Total playing time:  39:47

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TO THE TOP

Classic Review

March 21, 2011

Reviewer: Chris

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