There’s one thing about being a unsigned and independent band that always makes the music more intense, well toned and heavy all at the same time. Meet Broken Glass Sanctuary, an extreme metal band from California who just released their debut album, A Kingdom Below, which is a ten track, half hour onslaught of pure aggression, carnage and unstoppable arrangements of death metal with elements of progressive death, brutal death and even some deathcore here and there which interestingly enough, works together extremely well. Musically, I sense a lot of influences from Aborted, Bloodbath, early Cannibal Corpse, Pathology and even some Abominable Putridity in the mix with certain tracks. The album contains some infectious melodies, melodic death metal soundscapes and the overall experience of hearing this album is just non stop heavy consecutively over and over where I truly feel these musicians have got a formula of keeping the progression, instrumentations and technical proficiency fluent and polished. The production on this release does not feel very clean but rather keeps it simple and steady without losing its sense of purpose and touch.
Tracks such as Desecration Of Flesh, Deeds Ov Malevolence and Prophetic Infernal Sorcery almost gave me a mid 2000’s era of Amon Amarth, known for the Gothenburg melodic death metal sound but Broken Glass Sanctuary’s way of creating brutal, progressive and traditional death metal all in one, their craftsmanship and structures are more cohesive and complex and also diverse as the vocals, guitars, bass, and drum deliverance upon listening to this album is really worth the experience. What draws me even closer when I got to listen to this album, even though its the band’s official debut full-length, they went above and beyond to make music heavy and meaningful. The lyricism on A Kingdom Below reflects on many themes associated with today’s society including anti-christianity, prophecy, propaganda and even some references to different cultural themes which I won’t go deeper entirely as I want the listener to observe it for what its worth. A Kingdom Below is a album that demonstrates the band’s growth, maturity and I’m stoked to see what the future holds for these Californians next.
Overall Score: 9.0/10
Review by Jake Butler
