Metalrage.com

Metalrage.com is a non-profit website created and maintained by a small group of music lovers from the Netherlands (and some other territories).
You can read more about us or contact us by clicking here.

Metalrage.com wil only accept digital promo's to save us all time. There will be a form available soon to upload the promo using our website. For now use the contact form available here to get in touch and send promos.

All logos and trademarks in this site are property of their respective owner. The comments are property of their posters, all the rest © 2002-2024 Metalrage.com

Enter keywords and hit enter!

Sanctorum - Drinking beer in the afternoon
After reviewing two releases of British metal band Sanctorum I though it was time to ask the guys some questions. All of ‘em took the time to answer the questions and below you can read the result. If you haven’t checked the review of their new album yet, check it out here: http://www.metalrage.com/reviews/1159.
 
Hey, how are you?
 
“We're all good thanks, it’s 10.00pm on a Sunday night, we’re sitting in our rehearsal room in the middle of writing new tracks, almost half the next album done!! Lol.”
 
Please introduce yourself.
 
“Aaron Sly: Guitar and vocals
Ash Lewis: Lead guitar
Chris Eldridge: Bass guitar
Matt Alston: Drums”
 
Can you tell us a bit more about the history of your band?
 
“We formed in late 2002 in the dark depths of Matt’s garage and we just started jamming and coming up with ideas. We eventually got enough material together for a full live show. The first show we played was in a tiny village hall in front of our mates and basically it grew from there with the release of Penumbra, which lead onto bigger shows and eventually The Heavens Shall Burn.”
 
Last year you changed the name of the band from Devolution to Sanctorum. I read that you did that to avoid confusion with other bands of the same name. How did you come up with the name Sanctorum?
 
Aaron: “I came up with it at some ungodly hour in the morning after a few JD & cokes, so it’s all a bit hazy really.”
 
What are the main influences for your band musically?
 
Ash: “Well our main influences are Lamb of God, Metallica, Dream Theater, Machine Head, Iron Maiden, Children of Bodom and so on.”
 
And how about the lyrics? They all seem very personal.
 
Aaron: “I prefer to write about my own personal experiences as I feel it makes for stronger lyrics and I feel I can also get a lot more emotion into them if your singing about your life rather than some mythical being.  I find also it’s a great way for me to deal with things that have happened, a lot healthier than a bottle of Jack Daniels haha!”
 
You’re all very young but you already manage to create a great album like ‘The Heavens Shall Burn’. At what age did you start to play music?
 
“Aaron: 10 years old
Ash: 9 years old
Matt: 9 years old
Chris: Since the formation of the band, so 4 yrs ago when I was 14.”

 
 
 
How’s the British metal scene for smaller bands like yours?
 
Matt: “Its going strong with a lot of great bands but it’s extremely difficult to break out on to the national scene and get recognized by a lot of people within this industry if you don’t have a lot of money behind you, so please feel free to donate generously hahaha!”
 
About the new album, you released it a couple of weeks ago but I’ve already read quite some positive reviews.. How do you feel about that?
 
Chris: “It’s great that our debut album is receiving such a warm welcome, we never expected it to be reviewed so well but we are all extremely proud of it. Hopefully it’s a great base to work on for the next one”
 
How’d you come up with the title ‘The Heavens Shall Burn’?
 
Aaron: “See answer to question 4. It’s so difficult to find something that sounds good, represents the subject matter of the songs on the album and the overall picture that the tracks build, but I think The Heavens Shall Burn does it well...well at least I hope it does. lol.”
 
I think between your first EP and this full-length the style of your music has changed a bit. The new music tends to be more death metal like instead of the nu-metal approach used on the EP. Why did you change the style?
 
Ash: “We didn't make a conscious decision to change it but it’s mostly due to us all evolving musically and our tastes in music changing, which obviously influenced us to push ourselves further as musicians and the overall sound of the band.”
 
In one sentence: What makes your new album special for the people?
 
Chris: “Hopefully, because it is a mixture of the old and new generations of metal, so there’s something for everyone to sink their teeth into.”
 
You recently toured with Mendeed, another great British band (now signed to Century Media), what was that like?
 
Matt: “It was a real eye opener to the touring lifestyle and how hard bands work and makes us want it so much more, also it was a good excuse to drink beer at 4 in the afternoon hahahaha”.
 

 
Imagine you’ve grown to the status Mendeed has right now, what band would you pick as a support act on a headlining tour and why this band?
 
Ash: “There’s so many great up and coming new bands its hard to pick just one, so I guess we'd have to pick one out of a hat haha.”
 
What goals would you like to achieve with Sanctorum?
 
Aaron: “WORLD DOMINATION!!! HAHAHA...no seriously we just want to be successful in the music business and have fun playing the music we want to.”
 
Anything left to say? Spit it out!
 
Matt: “Keep a look out for us!! The video for ‘Ancient Words’ has just been released so watch out for that, we think it looks amazing!!”
 
Aaron: “Go buy the album, we need to eat! Hahaha. Hope to see you at a show sometime soon! cheers!'”
 
All: “And a final thanks to Erik at Metalrage for all his support and very kind words in the review, thanks mate.”
 
I want to thank the guys in Sanctorum for their time and hereby I’d like to recommend their new album to all of you reading this interview.
Details Written on 2006-11-14
Writer @Boek

Tags: #Sanctorum