SANCTUARY — Refuge Denied (review)

Album · 1987 · US Power Metal

3/5 · 2011-04-28
UMUR

"Refuge Denied" is the debut full-length studio album by US power metal act Sanctuary. The album was released in 1987 by Epic Records. "Refuge Denied" was produced by Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine which probably helped Sanctuary to get more attention. To my great surprise the album has sold more than 300.000 copies worldwide. I guess it puts in perspective the popularity of Sanctuary in the late eighties/ early nineties.

The music on the album is a combination of US power metal and melodic thrash metal. Sort of like blending the sound of Savatage and Megadeth. The band are obviously very skilled musicians and the high pitched screaming vocals by Warrel Dane are strong and distinct sounding. For such a young singer he sounds surprisingly confident. His vocals can be a bit hard on the ears after a while though but that also has much to do with how the vocals are produced. There´s a reverb laden and hard sound to them that sounds a bit unpleasant at times.

The album features 9 tracks distributed over a 40 minute playing time. There are 8 original tracks on the album and a cover of "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane. The latter really isn´t anything special and I´d actually say it´s the least interesting track on the album. Thankfully the original tracks are better and tracks like "Battle Angels" and "Termination Force" show lot of promise. Generally the songs lack a bit in the songwriting department though and it´s not many songs I remember after the album has finished. A few more recognisable hooks would have helped IMO.

I´ve read a lot of reviews of this album over the years and most of them mention Dave Mustaine´s production as a weak point. After listening to the first song on the album I wasn´t sure why people reacted so strongly on how the album sounded, but after the album ends, it´s become quite apparent. The production is rather weak sounding and absolutely doesn´t do the songs any favours. The guitars have a scratchy weak sound to them, the drums lack power and I´ve already mentioned the at times unpleasant vocal production.

"Refuge Denied" is not an excellent album by any means but despite a lot of obvious flaws, it´s still quite a decent debut album and a 3 star rating is deserved.

more than 2 years ago
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The Angry Scotsman wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I have and it does seem better, this album is a pretty standard melothrash except with helium vocals, ItMB seems more progressive and with better crafted songs, more restraint vocally. I'm liking it.

UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

You should check out "Into the Mirror Black". It´s a much better album than "Refuge Denied".

The Angry Scotsman wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Even though I've always known of Sanctuary, (thank to Nevermore of course) never actually listened to them until today!
On first listen this album is, shocking to say the least lol melodic thrash metal with power metal vocals! On a first listen not bad and I'd probably agree with 3 stars