In 1996 Hubertus Liljegren (guitars) and Daniel Thelin (drums) founded Sanctifica and were soon joined by Alexander Orest (bass). Although starting out as a death metal act, soon another element was integrated into their sound as Alexander left the bass guitar to Jonathan Jansson, and instead showed his talent with the keyboard. The sound of death metal became frostier and blacker. Sanctifica's first recording was perceived in late 1997. The demo tape, called 'In The Bleak Midwinter', contained Nordic black metal and was released in early 1998. Following this, Henrik Georgsson joined the band as a second guitar player, broadening the musical possibilities. In the last year of the millennium Alexander was replaced by Aron Engberg. The wintery black metal was transformed into something furious enough to tame chaos. The resulting debut album, 'Spirit Of Purity', was released in March of 2000. Having mastered black metal the course was set for less explored territories. The furiously intensity in the music calmed leaving place for more intelligent playing, it was arranged in new interesting ways and a lot of the screaming was replaced with clean vocals. Four months in the making, 'Negative B' was perfected in January and the album was released in March of 2002.

NEGATIVE B (2002) C.L. MUSIC & PUBLISHING

  1. Labels
  2. Stardust Inc.
  3. Epitaph
  4. Lavender
  5. Red Alert
  6. Nerve
  7. Juxtapose
    1. As A Reminder
    2. Confront
    3. Summer Sits Here Raining

Line-up:

Aron Engberg - Keys

Jonathan Jansson - Bass

Henrik Georgsson - Guitar, Flute

Hubertus Liljegren - Vocals, Guitar

Daniel Thelin - Drums

Guests:

David Seiving - Additional Lead Vocals on 2

Carl Johan Grimmark - Mandoline, Glissentar, Tele Cable

I've owned this CD for a long time already. But I had no clue what to write about it. It blends and mixes so many different styles, it defies any genre classification. There are clean vocals, death vocals, female vocals, industrial vocals, choir arrangements, flute and hand-claps! A riff can start of as a death metal riff, only to end up as an acoustic guitar-part. It's so complex I find it virtually impossible to listen to the whole CD in one go. Some of the songs are also a bit too long for their own good. I tend to like the harder parts of the album the best. Is this insanity or genius? One of the most intriguing albums I own for sure. Imagine a cross between Extol and Paramaecium.

Killer tracks: Labels, Epitaph, Red Alert

Sanctifica also appear on:

V/A - 'In The Shadow of Death - A Scandinavian Extreme Music Compilation'

 

Hubertus Liljegren guest appearances:

Audiovision - 'The Calling'

Divinefire - 'Glory Thy Name'

Divinefire - 'Farewell'