Twenty five years. A quarter of a century! That's an absurdly long pause between albums. So, the last thing one might expect from Sanctuary's comeback would be for the band to carry on from where it got with 1989's 'Into the Mirror Black.' More so, vocalist Warrel Dane and bassist Jim Sheppard didn't spend that time with their arms crossed but played in some other band. And this has its inevitable effect on 'The Year the Sun Died.'

That's putting it mildly. The new Sanctuary record practically sounds like Nevermore without Jeff Loomis. This is, to a large extent, due to Dane's vocals. You can talk about the high-pitched screams from 'Future Tense' only in, well, past tense... Instead, you get what later became his trademark style, a combination of not particularly powerful – but soaked in some type of otherworldly grief – high vocals, and episodic dives into the low register, reminiscent of what Peter Steele used to do.

Not so much of prog metal heroes and much more speed metal traditionalists, guitarists Lenny Rutledge and Brad Hull provide a intense mix of fast riffs and frilly leads that erupt out of them. Their sharpness serves as a counter-point to Dane's all-engulfing vocals in songs like opener 'Arise and Purify' and the lead single 'Frozen.' And Chris 'Zeuss' Harris' production makes them sound crushingly powerful!

What makes 'The Year the Sun Died' special, though, is Sanctuary's ability to try different things without the quality of the songs suffering from that. For example, in 'Exitium (Anthem of the Living)' the band slows the tempo down, but instead of starting to drag, the song becomes one of the album's most dynamic ones, as it lets the vocals soar while the guitars gradually gain power. In turn, the guitars let go of their lead role in 'The Dying Age,' where they start following Dane's voice, creating a reverb-soaked eerie reflection of his dark lyrics.

The closing title track wraps all the preceding heaviness and darkness into one, culminating in a chorus where Dane, in his typically cold manner, croons: “What if there is nothing more?/ What if there is only emptiness?/ What if there is nothing more beyond the cold of deliverance?” In this moment, Sanctuary achieve a perfect synergy of music, lyrics, concept and performance that I haven't really heard at least since Nevermore achieved the same with 'Believe in Nothing...'

...Comparing the two bands is inevitable. After all, one was the continuation of the other and now, when things come full-circle, it is natural that the music would be somewhere in the middle style-wise. It is the album's strong songs that prevent 'The Year the Sun Died' from struggling in that middle. Instead, it sounds like one complete whole, that even has the grain of genius that is required for it to be something really special.