MATERIAL SANCTUARY

The music on Material Sanctuary continues the doomy semi-progressive metal style of the debut album Fall Babylon Fall (1992). An album that´s highly praised by many fans of the genre with the 21:21 minute long epic track The Chronicle of the Seven Seals often being mentioned as the highlight of the album. While there is no epic of that proportion on Material Sanctuary the songs are generally very long and epic in style. The basis in the music is doomy yet melodic guitars, a heavy rythm section, melodic keyboards and the fantastic vocals by Fredrik Ohlsson. He is so amazing I´m awe struck every time I listen to Veni Domine. His voice is very similar to the voice of Geoff Tate from Queensrÿche which is also one the strongest influences on the music. I´d mention Candlemass too though because of the doomy approach. The quality of the songs is generally very high and songs like The Meeting, Material Sanctuary and Beyond the Doom are examples of Veni Domine when they are strongest, while some of the other tracks on the album doesn´t stand out enough and quite frankly are a bit too average. But those vocals just blow me away every time.

The production is warmer and more powerful than the production on the debut. It suits the music well.

Material Sanctuary is a great album by Veni Domine and allthough not all tracks are equally exciting, it´s overall a very good album and a 3.5 star rating is warranted. People interested in a combination of progressive metal and melodic doom metal should definitely take a listen here.