Soul Sanctuary – Afterlife – Review

Articles Reviews — 30 November 2009

Review Of Soul Sanctuary’s Debut Album “Afterlife”

Soul Sanctuary is a six piece alternative metal band from England and we’ve been keeping our eyes on them since the initial  interview that they had with HeadbangToday.com! Afterlife is Soul Sanctuary’s debut album and was produced, engineered, written, sung (screamed), mixed and mastered by one of their lead vocalists Luke Gibson. Heavily talented  to bring us quality heavy metal! Their demo tracks grew onto me like  a parasite, tapping into the host’s brain, convincing me that this will be an album worthy of purchase. So there I had it. I bought “Afterlife” and waited in great inticipation for its arrival. Upon receiving it, I popped it in and the only thing that kept coming to mind while listening to the entire album twice in a row was “REVIEW” – This album deserves and demands a review that will contain my thoughts and feelings that streams throughout my mind as the tracks play along. The album explodes with the very first track after which the album is named (or vice versa) “Afterlife“. The intro of “Afterlife” itself already gave me a sense of what I can expect from the rest of the tracks with it’s brain-vibrating screaming, fast paced drumming and ground-breaking riffs. The song well put together with very nice polish that will ensure you the overall quality of the album. It has a beautiful guitar solo backed up with heavy riffing and contains two very apocolyptic-sounding breakdowns near the end which eventually leads to a nice steady decline of solid screaming which halts after the song’s trademark drumbeat. Game Of Conviction is the second track on their album which reminds me very much of Sevendust with it’s coarse backing vocals and short-bursts of combined musical excellence. It contains yet another beautiful solo which is carried by fast metal drumbeats and kick-ass riffing. The melodic vocals and screaming compliments eachother well in this song which is something not many bands in my experience can get the hang of with two vocalists. Afterlife’s third track is called Destiny. A new song that I haven’t heard from Soul Sanctuary before while I was enjoying all their demo tracks prior to the album’s release.  It’s chorusses finnish themselves off with decent fast and well composed riffs. Another outstanding solo has managed to embed itself into this song. Their guitarists Ed Stevens and Anthony Montague have really done amazing work with their talents and have put it to a good use. The melodic bass notes serves as a perfect backbone to the song. Killing Time, the album’s fourth track kicks off with heavy growling and excells towards slow heavy riffs with the drummer crashing his symbols timeously with the heavy riffing. A song that also proves that whispers and screams can be equally powerful. A brilliant guitar solo electrifies you towards heavy growling followed by a very fast and funky, funk,  drum & bass-like bass slapping solo. This song is the shit. Track no. 5 is Packaged To Sell. It’s been  a personal all-time favourite since I heard the demo version. Some have said that the screaming vocals sound a lot like that of Slipknot’s Corey Taylor… I’ll have to disagree slightly, but I have to give it to Soul Sanctuary. Their screams/growls are indeed pretty awesome! Luke Gibson does an excellent job in his vocal work. I like the way the two vocalists have come up with using melodic singing combined with screaming and packaged it into a pretty heavy album – to sell. The sixth track called Reflections starts off with a chilled accoustic riff and decent melodic singing from both vocalists. The song then eventually progresses into nice heavy alternative rock and rocks on until it declines back into its accoustic state. A perfect blend. I can see this type of song being played on national radio here in South Africa. It’s probably one of Soul Sanctuary’s ‘safest’ songs to be commercialised and released for local radio airtime. Number 7 – Scars Of You, was added to the album for probably no other reason but to show off each band members’ talent in their own respective department! Eardrum-tampering screams, decent melodic singing, another amazing solo, cool bass tunes with solid riffs and tight drumming is rarely heard of in one song! Their lyrics cover personal experiences from the singer’s perspective which a lot of fans can generally relate to. I remember once seeing someone post something to Soul Sanctuary, telling them that Road Runner Records will never sign them because of their “Emo Singing”.  He even went on to compare Megadeth’s lyrics with Soul Sanctuary’s… Well, I disagree. It’s a well-known fact that Dave Mustane from Megadeth’s lyrics are usually just plain silly. Soul Sanctuary has managed to produce their own album and although a label such as Road Runner Records would be benificial to the band’s future, R.R. simply aren’t aware of Soul Sanctuary’s material just yet. Who knows? Maybe these record label giants will notice them after a second album? I don’t even need to review the rest of Afterlife’s tracks! So I will keep them under wraps until you unwrap your own self-bought christmas prezzie and pop “Afterlife” into your system.  It’s an outstanding album, perfectly composed by an exceptionally talented band that deserves to be a part of any metal head’s music collection.

IN SHORT:

Afterlife is a music masterpiece considering the fact that it is Soul Sanctuary’s debut album of which the quality of the produced tracks are superb.  It’s jam-packed with beautifully unique guitar solos, heavy riffs, funky bass riffs and heavy screaming combined with excellent melodic singing.  I would kill to see these guys live and I anticipate future releases from them. I can’t even begin to imagine what Soul Sanctuary will evolve into.

1010 metal horns m/

Enough said. Now go get the album – www.soulsanctuarymusic.com

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Scream

  • http://www.soulsanctuarymusic.com Luke

    It’s been a long time since I read this, and reading back through it, it’s an awesome review, I really can’t understand what that Yann dude was getting at in your writing, I’d completely forgotten about the flame war that had started below too, I still have no clue who it was pretending to be Yannita and his Dad? Oh well I guess the mystery will remain unsolved for ever more lol :)

  • http://www.headbangtoday.com Scream

    It should be banned from teh intrenetz

  • http://www.soulsanctuarymusic.com Luke

    wtf? that site is really fucked up!

  • http://www.headbangtoday.com Scream

    It was http://www.holladaddy.com – It made me vomit in my very own mouth.

  • http://www.soulsanctuarymusic.com Luke

    Oh go on what was it i’m interested now?

  • Yann

    Oh btw someone asked to hear what I write: www.*editedbyScream*.com – this was faaaar to easy. Thanks for contributing x

    [Editor's Note] I removed that URL because… FUCK I’ve never seen something so retardedly lame in my earthly existence. – Scream]

  • Yann

    This is amazing! Well shocked my mum and dad got on here, and that I’m a man apparently now too…

  • Kirbyfan23

    I LOVE how Yann thinks he’s fooling us with these fake personas. I also find it hilarious that he thinks no one has read the entire post, as I have. And bashing the band is not criticism, it’s douchebaggery. But, if you do consider bashing to be criticism, I’ll criticize you: Yann is a douche who constantly annoys the hell out of people. He thinks he is cool and right about everything, but he in fact is not God. I can think of 20 people in a 50 square foot radius who would like to punch his face in, and I live alone. So, in all, Yann gets a -14/10.

  • Darth Vader

    No. I am your father.

    Search your feelings. You know it to be true.

    Vady.

    P.S. Soul Sanctuary are rocking my tie-fighter right now! Heavier metal than an AT-AT!

  • http://collegeotr.s3.amazonaws.com/images/blogs/6708359c86e21a343ff75b87911c1709.jpg peter yann

    This is yanns dad, im REALLY not impressed with the comments that have been posted on here!

    It’s not my fault that i have a small penis and cant get it up hence why i get luke to ravish my wife (several times a night)

    p.s. yann, DNA test was negative sorry son im not your father…….maybe ask luke.

  • Yannita

    Sorry Luke, didn’t mean to besmirch your good name! You were very good though, dobbin (wink wink)! :o )

  • http://www.headbangtoday.com Scream

    yann: So what you mean is that you’re incapable of taking any criticism AT ALL in a positive light, and that if anyone does decide to tell you you’re wrong, you’ll just delete them?
    Heil Hitlerx

    Well, I did approve all your negative comments, didn’t I? I was just reminding you about the potential annihilation of your posts should you fail to recognise the awesome godliness I have over you.

    Hail Soul Sanctuary!

  • http://www.soulsanctuarymusic.com Luke

    LMAO @ yannita! wtf was that? there is no need for talk like that, although highly ammusing!

  • http://www.headbangtoday.com Scream

    Yannita: I’m Yann’s Mum and I’d like to apologise for his behaviour. He’s a very naughty boy!I’d also like to say that Luke has taken me roughly from behind several times, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!Thanks.Yann’s Mum.P.S. Soul Sanctuary actually do rock very hard. Try it and see!

    LOL!

  • yann

    By the way, the guys from this band should be dead chuffed I’m commenting on this as aside from the two guys in the band and the writer I’m the only one who seems to have read it (and then commented) which means statistically you’re more interesting than Megadeth.

  • yann

    So what you mean is that you’re incapable of taking any criticism AT ALL in a positive light, and that if anyone does decide to tell you you’re wrong, you’ll just delete them?

    Heil Hitler

    x

  • Mike Cameo

    “Your distaste in my writing skills are no match for the power I have in removing your feeble posts.”

    This was all you needed to write. Beautiful. I’m still laughing.

  • http://www.funkimunkibadges.co.uk Creepy

    Even IF the album sucked (I think it’s awesome), there is still no reason to bash someone’s genuine review and opinion of it.
    You also seem to assume that because they are small, relatively unknown, and from a “bastard corner of the UK”, that means they must suck regardless of how good they are.. Remember pretty much every major successful band started this way, even the big ones like Metallica.

  • Yannita

    I’m Yann’s Mum and I’d like to apologise for his behaviour. He’s a very naughty boy!

    I’d also like to say that Luke has taken me roughly from behind several times, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

    Thanks.

    Yann’s Mum.

    P.S. Soul Sanctuary actually do rock very hard. Try it and see!

  • http://www.myspace.com/genoveserocks Adam (Genovese)

    Now look here people, lets get this out the way before we do anything…… everyone is entitled to their own opinion!

    Now lets talk Soul Santuary. I know these guys as we are from the same town and I can tell you that they have put a lot of effort into the production of this album and it looks great before you even give it a listen.

    Our town is quite low income generally and they price it around £5 I believe which also means they don’t alienate any fans and offer value for money unlike LOTS of so called 10/10 bands Yann describes (Metallica, Slayer etc all retail over twice that here).

    On the subject of the music I am in a pop punk band so while some may also feel I have no business being on here, I also listen to a lot of hardcore, metal and more besides.

    I find the album is strong for an independant debut, since they have been in their current lineup for a lot shorter than many, so they are finding their feet so to speak. I feel you were generous with a 10/10 review but when you are passionate about new music who are we to argue, since it is all based on opinion!

    I have disagreed with Kerrang, Metal Hammer and many publications on many albums. While i’ve been disappointed with many bands new and old but it doesn’t mean we need to argue about it! Likewise I feel you (reviewer) could’ve been less annoyed with Yann as he was seemingly calm at first when offering objections to your review.

    I’d say for me its a 7/10, AND I know there’s more to come from the guys, but as i’ve played many shows with them (diverse town so bands are always friends foremost!) I guess I have a bit of bias!

    Finally I think you obviously have a great site that introduces people to new music rather than the usual dross, so kudos to you for that, kudos to Soul Sanctuary (thanks Luke for the t-shirt I wore at my London show) and kudos to Yann for being willing to disagree.

    Everyone’s a winner!

  • man in the box

    awesome music, awesome musicians and awesome review!

    yann i dont like your attitude, i would like to see what sort of music you write, if any at all!
    what a chump!

    keep up the good work guys!

  • Kel

    Yann, I would like to know what qualifies you to be a critic on music you obviously do not like and do not understand. The people that know what it’s all about have rated it 10/10 and deservedly so! The new album is absolutely brilliant and their live performances are second to none. This band will go far given the right breaks! I suggest you sit back and relax to whatever crap you prefer to listen to and let Soul Sanctuary’s fans enjoy what they enjoy.

  • Terry

    This is mainly for Yan and his remarks on the fact that Soulsanctuary are from as you say from some bastard corner of the UK and never been signed blah blah yadda yadda rember this theve done a brillient job getting an albulm released that has been sold all over the place as far as them going out of country like Luke has said Every one starts small and what is happening and arranging may not yet be public but doesnt mean there not going to go any where else. all ill say is the albulm is great and comparing them to older bands like Iron maiden and such is wrong its a totally different era of music diffent way the band sing and work. Your personnal opinion is your own noone can change that but to sit there and slate them as you have done isnt right some one that hasnt heared the music yet might now not want to which is unfair to soulsanctury, I agree with scream that this albulm is awesome and i cant wait till the next.

  • Brandon

    Love the album Luke. I got one of the limited editions back in September based on the Myspace, and I’m proud to wear my Soul Sanctuary T-Shirt and blast the album in the truck. When the next one comes out I’ll be getting that as well.

  • Jo

    You know what? We all have different ideas about what makes good music, I love these guys, being somewhat mature in years I suppose and brought up on the heavy bands from the 70s and 80s,it is more frantic than im used to but I love this new stuff, also it makes a nice change that we are seeing more English bands producing good music.

  • http://www.headbangtoday.com Scream

    You know, Yann, we have a dedicated category called Flame Wars on our forums http://www.headbangtoday.com/forum

    Why not join us there instead of talking trash here?

    QUOTE: “A clueless amateur music journalist with limited writing capabilities and a poor at best knowledge of music is capable of making me cry via the internet!”

    First and foremost, in response to your above quoted statement, your grammar needs improvement. Also, I never claimed to be a music journalist. I never did any courses on journalism and I doubt that I ever will. I don’t write articles for Newspapers and Magazines. I write for Headbang Today.

    I’ve never written reviews for epic albums like Metallica’s Black album, Reign In Blood or even Number Of The Beast. So that alone gives me every right to give whatever album a rating of my choice, on the basis of what I think and how I feel about it. Therefore it doesn’t necessarily mean that I classify this album as a classic genre definitive. It takes a lot to impress me and Soul Sanctuary did just that. I didn’t do this review with the intention to degrade the more mainstream bands and the success in their albums… I wrote it with the intention to share how I feel about it with those who have the very same taste, openmindedness and daring hunger for new stuff in metal as what I have.

    I represent Headbang Today so what I say on here goes, regardless of what trolls like you have to say or do.

    Nothing you yadda about will change that rating, which makes me more superior than you in this regard. So bow down before me and bring me offerings. Your distaste in my writing skills are no match for the power I have in removing your feeble posts.

  • yann

    Thanks Luke.

  • http://www.soulsanctuarymusic.com Luke

    scream, don’t try and convince him, I’d rather he just hate our music, the guy obviously believes he has the last say when it comes to all things grand and holy. doesn’t matter to me. Some people will like it others won’t, if he feels the need to troll. let him.

  • yann

    Yup, you’re dead right: A clueless amateur music journalist with limited writing capabilities and a poor at best knowledge of music is capable of making me cry via the internet!
    You’re clearly incapable of actually taking any form of criticism on your miniscule out of touch metal blog-site and instead resort to calling me a troll… Well, i guess now you got one.

  • http://www.headbangtoday.com Scream

    So you get a kick out of flaming bands on media sites? Why not grow some balls and send hatemail to the more famous bands instead?

    If you’ve really given their entire album a listen, then that means you obviously own a copy right? You honestly can’t judge Soul Sanctuary by their music on Myspace or Reverbnation. Those are mere demo songs that remain un-polished. I stick to my point.

    Soul Sanctuary’s “Afterlife” will wipe that stupid smile off your face and posess you to bang the living purified fuck out of your head!

    (This is an edited version of my response. The original version would’ve made Yann cry, but we don’t want cry babies here now do we?)

  • Yann

    I very much doubt they would stock it based on the fact that the band appear to never have done a tour anywhere let alone S A. And seem to have no real interest from any record label, given that they appear to be begging people to help them win a battle of the bands contest. Perhaps I’m being harsh, but hey if your going to throw around 10/10 reviews willy nilly you should expect a bit of it.

  • Ed

    I believe Yann is what’s known as a Troll!

  • http://www.headbangtoday.com Scream

    I should see if our music stores here could strike some deal with Soul Sanctuary. The album will look good on our metal section’s shelves.

  • http://www.soulsanctuarymusic.com Luke

    lol @ yann, well i’m not going to say your being unfair. I’m always very critical of my own work and i probably agree with you to some degree although i wouldn’t be quite that negative.

    All bands were small and unsigned in some bastard corner of their own country at one point in their career. We did this thing completely off our own back and our fans love it, so that’s good enough for us for now. =]

  • yann

    Yep I have, I think it’s pretty mediocre at best, and sounds really dated, the drumming also sounds impossibly fake and it’s mastered horribly, perhaps if it came out in 2002…

    I just don’t think simply describing each song is decent musical journalism, it’s not being subjective at all, your review is just a synopsis. Giving the album a 10/10 basically means you would akin this album to classic genre defining Black Album/Reign In Blood/Number Of The Beast quality records, which it clearly isn’t, and now the next review you do of something of that kind of caliber is going to come across as silly given that you’re probably going to rate it lower (or equal to) a small unsigned myspace band who have never left their own county in some bastard corner of the UK.

  • http://www.headbangtoday.com Scream

    Nothing is overblown. It’s a review that scored 10/10. If we found anything wrong with the album then it wouldn’t have earned 10\10, don’t you think?

    If we just scored it the above mentioned score without telling you exactly why we think it deserves that then you would be dissatisfied with that as well.

    We loved the album and it exceeded all of our expectations. Have you given it a listen?

  • yann

    More of a slightly overblown description than a review….