Review by Felix on October 13, 2022.

Friends of the noble drop, drink up quickly. Here comes Sanctuary and Warrel Dane (R.I.P.) definitely has the power to make all glasses burst post-mortem. His high-pitched screams move to dizzying heights, but his performance can also satisfy those of you who prefer a more male voice. Warrel managed a broad range masterly and without him, Sanctuary would definitely have been a completely different band. But I don’t want to speak about imaginery vision, let’s talk about Sanctuary in the form in which they really existed.

The world was still relatively simple in 1988. There were no 2,000 telephone tariffs, no myriads of streaming services and if the Russians were at war, it was only at the ass of the world, also known as Afghanistan. And in metal, there was only posers and thrashers, right? This was what I thought when I saw the Repka artwork, the sticker “produced by Dave Mustaine” and song titles like “Battle Angels” or “Die for My Sins”. Well, Sanctuary did not belong to the posers, but they brought many shades of grey into my polarizing imagination. “Refuge Denied” is vigorously produced, does not lack depth, boasts with power and has some speedy, very intensive parts. But it also full of melancholic sequences that speak another language. The dramatic cover “White Rabbit” emphasises this facet of Sanctuary very well, but don’t think you get a flabby piece of music. Instead, the band combines sad, desperate undertones very competently with its doubtlessly heavy musical approach.

Speaking of their way of proceeding, Sanctuary connect slightly bulky, riffing (which is never driven by commercial intentions) with excellent lines that create a captivating flow. “Refuge Denied” is free from lukewarm pieces whose only function is to explain us that life isn’t always a bed of roses. Instead, the songs have character and their individuality shimmers through the notes, although the album does not suffer from heterogeneity. One of the highlights is “Termination Force”. Its lamenting guitar at the beginning lays a false trail which, at the latest, the mega-intense chorus hammers into your skull. But despite its sometimes hammering sections, this extremely mature debut does not focus on violence in any way. The basic vibes of “Refuge Denied” are formed by its dark elegance and its somehow mysterious fatalism. And another attribute comes to my mind, not only because of the record label: epic. I cannot describe a song like “Soldiers of Steel” without using this word. It’s heavy, majestic and eerie, traditional on the one hand, but pretty complex on the other hand – and all this without any inner contradiction.

I already said that the album profits from a vigorous production, but I want to go a step further. For me, who never liked Megadeth very much (some of the early songs are okay, but the rest…), it seems that Dave Mustaine never made a better contribution to metal than he did with this producer job. The mix is not overly clean, but it lends the songs such a full sound that I am really impressed. Everything appears unbelievably tight and makes jewels like the band anthem “Sanctuary” or the daring “Ascension Destiny” to real monsters. No doubt, the five-piece made an enormous statement at this stage of its career and when we look back today and see how history has continued... well, it could have been better. Especially for Warrel Dane. Thank God, at least his vocals live on.

Rating: 8.7 out of 10