Metal Review (Pellet): Sanctity, Road to Bloodshed

Sancity’s debut Road to Bloodshed is to Trivium what The Confession’s first full-length is to Avenged Sevenfold.  An up and coming band produced by a member/producer of another band, in this case Jason Suecof who produced both Trivium’s The Crusade and Ascendency and served as song-writer on a number of that band’s songs, that leads to an album strikingly similar to that of another band (The Confession’s first full-length was produced by A7X frontman M. Shadows).   Road to Bloodshed isn’t a bad album though and even excels over Trivium’s in several aspects.  It’s a well nuanced album that, while familiar, features top-notch production and a very mature sense of pacing.  Never veering into ballad territory Road to Bloodshed features enough musical texture that the frequent growls of lead singer Jared MacEachern don’t grate nearly as much as Trivium’s Matt Heafy.  I think these guys are worth keeping an eye on.  It’s hard to say on album like this exactly how much the producers creative element influenced the band in question, given the album’s similarity to late Trivium efforts I would suggest a lot, but I’d be interested to see how a freer creative hand in their own output effects the quality of their work.   In the end this is a solid, if slightly derivitive, outing that fans of melodic influenced thrash metal would do well to at least give a whirl.