SANCTUARY's WARREL DANE: 'I Didn't Have Any Apprehension Or Fears' About Making New Album

Matt Coe of DeadRhetoric.com recently conducted an interview with SANCTUARY and NEVERMORE singer Warrel Dane. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On how the SANCTUARY reunion came together with guitarist Lenny Rutledge, bassist Jim Sheppard, drummer Dave Budbill, and guitarist Brad Hull:

Dane: "What really fueled the reunion is when Jack Black got involved with the video game Brütal Legend and picked 'Battle Angels' to be in the game. The rumor is he picked the song that he liked to fantasize a bit about. That got us talking. We gave Sean [Blosi, guitarist] the opportunity to be involved, but he decided it's not his thing anymore. I respect that. We have known Brad through FORCED ENTRY, and he was a part of the last tour in the early '90s with us."

On SANCTUARY's upcoming third album, "The Year The Sun Died":

Dane: "About halfway through the songwriting process, I realized everything was going to be fine. I didn't have any apprehension or fears because I knew we had been bottling shit up for a long time, and when it was going to come out, it was going to be an assault attack, like that Michael Schenker song and album title. There might have been a few old ideas, but it's all pretty much brand new, current, and relevant. I think it really sounds like a modern metal record. It sounds up to date and will get us back into the metal market."

On working with producer Chris "Zeuss" Harris (SOULFLY, SHADOWS FALL, HATEBREED) on "The Year The Sun Died":

Dane: "Zeuss brought everything to the table; he is a great producer. Bottom line. He really pushed me hard, and made me sing better than I have in a long time. That's one great thing that a producer can do when they are showing you their skills. They know how to push musicians, and he did the same thing with all the guys in the band. He wanted everyone to perform as (good) as they could. I love that guy for that. I think we are pretty lucky we got him, he wanted to do this record so bad, he was pursuing us."

On the two new songs that SANCTUARY first played live at the 2012 Bloodstock Open Air festoval in England, "The World Is Wired" and "I Am Low":

Dane: "Those are two of the first songs that we wrote when we were doing this whole thing. We realize they are great songs, especially 'I Am Low'. And those songs are really close to my heart, because there is some weird personal stuff on (the latter) song. The rest of the album is going to blow people away. The first track, 'Arise And Purify', is really indicative of what the rest of the album sounds like. That song has the high-pitched screaming, the old SANCTUARY sound, and it's already up on YouTube and that's a good thing because I haven't seen anything but positive response to it."

Read the entire interview at DeadRhetoric.com.

SANCTUARY's "Arise And Purify" (new song) audio stream: