Review by Rexorcist for Sanctuary - Into the Mirror Black (1990)

Lemme start by saying that I planned to listen to all three Sanctuary albums.  Refuge Denied was almost incredible.  Even though it was clearly frontloaded, the stuff at the front was extremely metallic, effortlessly menacing and badass, and perfectly produced.  If the debut was that good and it wasn't even the one everyone loves, this had to be better.

Immediately I noticed that the production wasn't as sleek and metallic, and their singer had to focus less on the screaming he was so good at.  Unlike King Diamond, Warrel Dane never overused it, not even for the debut's album length.  Now he's focusing more on singing, and as he focuses on the music itself, the band relies on attempting to create excellent riffs and melodies to drive the album rather than the cop-outs they still mastered on the debut, including heaviness and production.  In other words, although both factors suffer only a slight bit, this sacrifice is perfectly necessary as it gives the band room to focus on playing as well as they can.  Because oif this, the metallic mood molds with other more emotional moods.

I guess if there is a flaw with the album, it's pretty simple: despite how good each song is, the album has a bit of a one track mind, meaning that it had the potential to be an incredible release, but the band squandered it on variants of the same idea.  But if you like that idea, each song is different enough to keep going without filler.