SANCTUARY Confirmed For Germany's METAL ASSAULT II Festival

Reunited '80s cult metal outfit SANCTUARY which features in its ranks current NEVERMORE frontman Warrel Dane and bassist Jim Sheppard has been confirmed for the Metal Assault II festival, set to take place January 14, 2012 in Wrzburg, Germany.

The festival billing is shaping up as follows:

SANCTUARY
HEIR APPARENT
HIRAX
THE SANITY DAYS
PAGAN ALTAR
SINISTER REALM

A new band photo of SANCTUARYcan be seen below.

SANCTUARY recently tapped Brad Hull (FORCED ENTRY) to play second guitar for the band.

Hull and Shannon Sharp, one of the moderators at Metalguitarist.org, were the top picks for the position. Brad, having previously toured with SANCTUARY, was given the opportunity to play the dates in Atlanta (ProgPower USA XII festival) and Greece.

Hull has spent the last two years playing the role of "James Hetfield" in the METALLICA tribute band BLISTERED EARTH, which plays "classic songs ranging from 1983's 'Kill 'Em All' to 1991's self-titled 'Metallica'."

SANCTUARY's current touring lineup:

Warrel Dane - Vocals
Lenny Rutledge - Guitar
Brad Hull - Guitars
Jim Sheppard - Bass
Dave Budbill Drums

In a recent interview, Dane stated about how SANCTUARY's reformation came about, "[SANCTUARY guitarist Lenny Rutledge and I] always talked to each other, but never really been friends again. And when the whole thing came about, that we were actually friends again, that's when we started talking more about doing it. And it definitely wasn't because NEVERMORE was imploding... which it was, at that point . . . We all just started talking with each other again. That was kind of the groundwork for it. And then we started saying, 'Well, gosh, let's make music again.' And my god! Lenny is writing some stuff that is so friggin great! Obviously, he's been bottling this up for years, because he really hasn't been doing anything... Well, he's had bands here and there. But he's really writing some great stuff that's really inspiring me, and making me fall in love with music again, with the creative process... everything that revolves around that. Really inspiring me to write really evil lyrics."

Regarding the sound of SANCTUARY's upcoming studio album, tentatively titled "The Year The Sun Died", Dane said, "This record is not going to sound like the other two. It might sound very similar to the second one ('Into The Mirror Black'). It's definitely not going to sound like the first one, because we're all a little bit older and I can't come up with a c-clamp for a scrotum and a helium tank . . . It's not going to sound like the old ones... it's 2011. It's still gonna be that good, I think, and there's gonna be high-pitched screaming. I'm making sure of that. With NEVERMORE, high-pitched screaming was never really called for. You know, with SANCTUARY... of course it is."

SANCTUARY played its first U.S. show in more than 20 years on January 21 at El Corazon in Seattle, Washington.

Fan-filmed video footage of SANCTUARY's September 25 performance at Gagarin 205 in Athens, Greece can be seen below.

Photo credit: Louis Konstantinou