Inner Sanctum – Legions Awake – Album Review

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Pay attention Death/Thrash fans – in fact fans of Heavy Metal in general – India’s greatest Metal export and all-round Metal behemoths Inner Sanctum have released their debut album and you’d be doing yourselves a grave disservice if you didn’t check it out. Immediately.

A long-time coming, Inner Sanctum have obviously been honing their craft to devastating effect as each song on this sonic onslaught are immediate, attention-grabbing and instantly memorable and carry the feel of an album you know you’re going to listen to time and time again even before you’ve finished the first spin.

“Reflections Of The Past” channels the more ferocious output of Derrick Green era Sepultura, Thrash riffs, groove rhythms and an intimidatingly colossal vocal performance – a pattern for the whole album incidentally – while “March Of The Wounded” cuts like a broken glass to the face. But frankly, trying to pick a highlight is a pointless task as Inner Sanctum have recorded one of the most cohesive albums we’ve heard in an age and consistency is the key here; the pace never falters, the band never once drop the ball or throw in a filler track and the result is a revelation.

A special mention to “Existence Denied” which features a collaboration of epic proportions between Inner Sanctum and three legendary metal guitarists; namely Christopher Amott (Armageddon, Ex-Arch Enemy), Daniel Mongrain (Voivod, Martyr, Ex-Gorguts, Ex- Cryptopsy, Capharnaum) and James Murphy (Ex- Death, Ex-Testament, Ex-Obituary, Ex-Lazarus A.D.) who are involved in a unique solo trade off yet their presence never once supersedes the strength of the song. 

Legions Awake transcends sub-genres to achieve that extremely rare title of a straight-up, top quality, must-hear, modern Heavy Metal release. A state of the art neck-wrecker, fans of Lamb Of God, Pissing Razors, modern-era Sepultura and Death/Thrash behemoths Testament will fall in love with this album. That we guarantee!  9/10